A Timely Prayer (Part 2 of 2)

In the face of persecution, the early church wasn't praying for protection or deliverance. Instead, they were praying that they would proclaim the gospel more boldly. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg continues a message in the book of Acts, challenging us to make their timely prayer our own. We're picking up today in Acts chapter 4 verse 23.

And when they were released, they went to their friends and they reported it. And on receiving the report, the people there lifted their voices together to God and then acknowledged that all that had taken place was under the sovereign hand of God. You see, my dear friends, unless we understand that God is a sovereign God, then it is almost inevitable that we will be buffeted and bowled over by the events which are clearly evidences of opposition and incipient persecution in relationship to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I suggest to you that is exactly what is happening here—that the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers set themselves against the Lord and against his anointed. I say to you again that the sovereignty of God, a God who is unfolding his purpose from all of eternity, is at the very heart of biblical Christianity.

Notice what they say. Lord, you made heaven and earth. Then they say in verse 25, not only are you the one who made, but you are the God who speaks. And in verse 28, and you decide. What has happened here has happened as a result of the hateful animosity in light of Psalm 2, expressed in Herod and Pontius Pilate, who along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel were amassing their forces against Christ.

But that was only doing what your plan had predestined to take place. This is why I suggest to you this morning that it is a timely prayer. For surely the great need of the hour in the church of Jesus Christ is simply this—for Spirit-filled, Christ-centered boldness. Jesus, you remember quoting the Scripture, says, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The prophets make it clear that the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the LORD will endure forever.

So this is it. This is what he was promising before he left them. Jesus says, And I will send the Holy Spirit, another one who will come and who will lead you into all truth.

What an amazing transformation! Read again Peter's sermon on Pentecost. Consider his ability to answer here, and compare that with what he was like only a matter of weeks before, when he stumbles before a lady who accuses him suggests to him that he's a follower of Jesus enough.

And now such boldness! By the power of the Holy Spirit! Aware of the fact that what is happening here is that the promise of Jesus has come to fulfillment in the giving of the Spirit, and the giving of the Spirit is revealed in Peter's ability to do this with the accompanying signs that sit as foundations in this time. Now, with that in mind, this is what I am suggesting to us—that this, then, is not a time to sound retreat but rather revelate, to remind ourselves of what it is we're doing as a church—small c and big C, particularly in the Western world—to remind ourselves who the enemy is. We saw this when we studied in Ephesians, didn't we? The battle is not waged against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness.

I wonder, do you believe that? That there are cosmic powers that are over this present darkness. It is always dark, but there are periods of declension, there are dark days, there are difficult times, about which Timothy was warned in the first century—grievous times will come, times of great trial, times when it appears as though the whole world is so destabilized against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

That is why saying that in Ephesians and writing then in Corinthians, he says, listen, the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. It's no surprise, then, that when Paul makes these statements for the encouragement of those to whom he writes, he then calls for his readers to pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. In other words, to pray big and to pray, he says, for me also. Why? So that I may no longer be persecuted, so that I will not have to spend all these times getting a beating, spending in jail?

No. Pray for me also that words may be given me to open my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. To proclaim the mystery of the gospel. Do you realize what a great temptation it is to the church at this point in our country to deviate from course, chasing down all kinds of notions and ideas?

Just reading, as I do, of the country of my birth, you see how much time is given by striking figures of the established church to tackle questions that have to do with the removal of statues or the presence of financial insecurities and so on. Preach the gospel, the mystery of the gospel. Pray for me, he says. That's what they're praying.

And to your servants to continue to speak. This is not a new program. This is not a new program. No. And the proclamation of the apostles was not reactionary.

No, it was proactive. It was declaration. They were men on a mission. They were men with a message. They were serving their master. Now, you say, well, what would it mean for them—what did it mean for them—to continue to speak the Word of God with all boldness?

Well, we could spend a very long time considering that, but we won't. I want us just actually to consider two short phrases to help us with this, as being representative of, if you like, the more comprehensive preaching that they're doing. And incidentally, in talking about preaching, the reason I began as I began is so that we don't say to ourselves as we're listening, well, I suppose this is a terrific word. You should have used it for basics, if there had been a basics. It seems to be all about preaching.

No. The whole gospel has been given to the whole church to reach the whole world. So whether you're a musician or an engineer or a farmer or a pharmacist, it doesn't matter. The charge of God is to speak his Word, the mystery of the gospel, with boldness. And so, when you go to the second chapter again of Acts, and Peter has stood up and made his declaration, and then in verse 22 he says, men of Israel, hear these words. Hear these words.

There's a colon in the ESV. And then the very next words on his lips. Jesus of Nazareth. Hear these words.

Jesus of Nazareth. Not, Hear these words. I got a political agenda. I hear these words. I got a financial idea. Hear these words. I'm not going to fix justice in the Word.

No! Hear these words. One. Jesus of Nazareth. And who is this Jesus of Nazareth, attested by God with mighty works and wonders and signs and so on? This Jesus, delivered up… That's the first phrase. This Jesus, delivered up. Delivered up by whom? Delivered up by the Father. For God so loved the world, he gave his only Son.

This is the Father's plan. Jesus, in speaking, says, Nobody takes my life from me. I lay it down.

I lay it down of my own accord. You see, at the very heart of the Christian gospel is the cross of Jesus Christ. In fact, the only attempt to proclaim Christianity that diverts from the cross of Christ is to no longer be in keeping with apostolic preaching and the apostolic priorities that are given to those who follow. So, in other words, people ought to be saying, Well, what was happening at the cross? Now, if we're going to be able to be doing this, speaking the word with boldness, we're going to tell them that on the cross Jesus was wounded for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him the chastisement that brought us peace was born, and with his wounds we are healed. Now, in other words, and in short order, the good news that Jesus offered himself to death for the sake of our sins means absolutely nothing to us—nothing to us—until we are brought face to face with our need of a Savior.

With our need of a Savior. So, you see, if we are going to speak to men and women with boldness concerning the word, concerning the mystery of the gospel, we're going to have to be brave enough, as our friend Rico tells us, to press through the pain barrier which comes from those who say, Well, wait a minute. You see, I don't think I have a friend or a neighbor or a colleague who's unprepared to acknowledge that their life is filled with defects or errors or misunderstandings or faults or shortcomings. And you can get people to say, Well, yes, I'm sure I'm not a perfect person.

I haven't done everything right. I try my best, and so on. But that's not the same as speaking about sin. About sin. We're very good at admitting that we're less than we might be. And then, very quickly, explaining as to why it is we are the way we are.

And if you listen carefully, our immediate response is to blame someone else or to blame something else or to blame my background or to blame this or the next thing in a way that pushes it from me. But, you see, to face up to my sin involves being prepared to own up to my defects, to admit that I have been living my life for myself without regard to the law of God. Like a child sneaking out under cover of darkness from his parents' home in order to do things which he or she knows displeases his parents, the Bible says that's us, sneaking away from God—sneaking away from God and finding ourselves wandering in the darkness, wandering in a fog of unknowing. And here is the wonder of the gospel, that into that darkness and into that fog, the searchlight of the love of God shines and shines in the person of Jesus. Again, take your Bible and read it. Read the stories of those who had encountered with Jesus, like the woman at the well. If we could have her with us and give her testimony this morning, and if we said to her, What do you want to say about this in relationship to Acts chapter 3 and 4? She says, You know that passage where Peter talks about your sins being blotted out?

It's blotted out? She said, My life was such a wreck. I was looking for love in all the wrong places. I had multiple relationships. I was notorious in the town. I came for water in the middle of the day, because nobody, neither male or female, could be bothered with me at all. But when I met Jesus, oh, that living water, oh, that delete key, oh, that redo, oh, that fresh start, just as I am—poor, wretched, blind, sight, riches, healing of the mind, yea, all I need in you I find.

Lord Jesus Christ, I come. See, the man at the gate couldn't have fixed himself. His condition was hopeless. It's a picture of our condition outside of Christ.

He needed a power outside of himself. We are completely incapable of changing ourselves. We need Jesus to change us.

You know what the issue is? Surrender. Surrender. To accept God's offer of free forgiveness involves surrender—a surrender most of us by nature are unprepared to make.

All of us, actually. Jesus is presented, then, in this kind of preaching as the one who is delivered up, as the one who is delivered up for our sins and raised for our justification. But he doesn't just remind his listeners that this Jesus was delivered up—and I just deal with this very briefly—but he then goes on to say, God raised him up. God raised him up. The same God who delivered him up to death for our sins is the one who has raised him up.

He has triumphed over that. It's a reminder that when we pray, as we must, that the servants of God might be enabled to proclaim the Word of God with boldness, we remind ourselves Christianity's not a philosophy. It's not a package of religious ideas. No, these fellows were propelled onto the streets of Jerusalem in light of the fact that they knew that Jesus was alive. If Jesus hadn't risen from the dead, why would Peter be out here preaching like this?

It makes no sense. And furthermore, we would probably never have heard of Jesus of Nazareth, were it not for the fact of the resurrection. Christianity is grounded in facts.

It's grounded in history. If he had been buried and left dead in that Palestinian tomb, then the whole thing would have been over. If you're wondering about these things in these days, if you're prepared to think it out, you have to ask yourself, What was it that changed the disconsolate disciples who, on their journey to Emmaus on that Easter Sunday morning, had everything in the past tense, we had hoped, we thought that, perhaps it was going to be… What was their problem? They had been looking for the solution in the wrong place. They were looking for a Messiah who was going to do something vastly different from this. But what changed them? Jesus changed them. Do you remember what he said upon reflection? Did not our hearts burn within us when he talked to us on the road, notice, and opened to us the Scriptures?

Opened to us the Scriptures. The same thing brought about the change in a self-satisfied religious man called Saul of Tarsus. And he is the one who, when he writes his great theological treatise in Romans, says of Jesus that Jesus… I had no interest in Jesus.

I thought that the people who followed Jesus were nuts. But he was delivered up for our sins, and he was raised for our justification. And it is on that basis, you see, that Peter makes this striking decoration in the twelfth verse of chapter 4, when he says, There's no salvation in anybody else, for there's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. He is the only Savior, because no one else possesses the qualifications. This is not arrogance. It's actually a logical deduction from the facts that are there before us in the person and work of Jesus.

Well, let us try and settle this in our mind. The need of the hour is this spirit-filled, bold proclamation of Jesus. Jesus. And that is why the prayer is a timely prayer.

Because we're living now in a culture of an incoherent mix of opinions and tensions. The charge is to be able to go out and say, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes—first for the Jew and then for the Gentile. But it finishes in verse 31, in the section that we read. We find out what had happened after they prayed.

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the Word of God with boldness. I think of all the things I'm missing at the moment. I'm missing our prayer times on the third Sunday night of the month.

We look forward to getting back to that soon. And when we come back for our first time, in the midst of our prayers, we're going to pray that what happened there might happen to us, that we might say to God, corporately as we gather, O Lord, shake us. O Lord, fill us. O Lord, embolden us. Enable us, your servants, to speak your Word with great boldness. Question each one of us faces is, will we respond to the call to boldly proclaim the good news of Jesus during this crucial point in time? That's Alistair Begg's challenge today in his message on Truth for Life.

In just a minute, Alistair will be back to close in prayer. But before he does, I want to remind you, if you've been encouraged by the clear biblical teaching you hear on this daily program, you're more than welcome to pass what you hear on to others. And one great way to do that is by joining the essential team of people we call Truth Partners. A Truth Partner provides ongoing financial support that enables listeners around the world to access Alistair's teaching free of charge. And when you do that, when you become a Truth Partner, to express our appreciation for your support, you're invited to request two books that we carefully select each month. You may have heard me mention the book we're currently offering. It's a devotional titled None Else, 31 Meditations on God's Character and Attributes. In this book, you'll find a month's worth of meditations that focus on different facets of God's nature, things like his wisdom or his compassion. All of the daily readings in the book None Else are accompanied by a scripture passage, a prayer, there's a brief commentary, and there are study questions.

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Box 398000, Cleveland, Ohio 44139. Now let's join Alistair as he closes in prayer. Father, in a multitude of words we pray that the voice of the risen Christ may be heard. Save us, Lord, from lethargy, from a wrongful sense of fearfulness. Grant that we might fear you and fear no one else.

Grant that boldness may not be a personality type, a braggadocia, no childlike trust, taking you at your word, being prepared to say, This is Jesus. I commend him to you. He was delivered up bearing our punishment in order that we might be forgiven, having kept the law in all of its righteous demands.

And he has been raised up, he's alive. So not only will our sins be blotted out, but the power of the Holy Spirit will be granted to us in order that we might live for Christ. O Lord, help us in these days. Shake us, fill us, embolden us. For Jesus' sake we pray. Amen. I'm Bob Lapine, thanks for listening. How do you typically respond when you're experiencing a trial, when you're facing affliction? Alistair explains there is actually an upside to suffering, but it requires something crucial from us. Find out what that is tomorrow. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.