Newsletter March 2022 Part 2

Sovereign God

So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: ‘Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ.’

27 “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. 29 Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, 30 by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.” (Acts 4:24-30)

     Having been arrested and commanded with severe threats not to speak again in the name of Jesus, Peter and John returned to their companions and reported what had occurred.  Yet rather than succumb to the threats of punishment for proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Saviour, the disciples turned to God in prayer, determined to do what they knew was right. (vv.19-20)

     Their prayer begins, like other prayers recorded in scripture, with the recognition that God is the Creator and Ruler of the universe.  They then recount His prophetic word spoken by David and fulfilled in Jesus – how He had allowed the powers of this world, represented by the unbelieving Jewish and Gentile authorities, to unite in order to fulfil the divine plan of salvation through the sacrificial death of Jesus.  Worldly forces that would normally have been at enmity with one another had come together as one so that all would recognise that, in actual fact, there are only two kingdoms – the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of God, now fulfilled in the coming of the Messiah Jesus. 

     Finally, the disciples’ prayer concludes with a request for boldness to fulfil their part in God’s plan – to proclaim the arrival of God’s kingdom.  They knew that Jesus would one day return and would reign for all to see.  In that day, He will judge the world in righteousness, and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He alone is Lord.  There will no longer be two kingdoms but only one as all things will be made subject to His rule.  Meanwhile the message of God’s kingdom needs to go out into all the world.  Therefore proclaiming this message was the early believers’ focus - whatever it might cost them.  And therefore their prayer request was not for comfort but for boldness to do what they could do, and for God to do what they themselves could not do:        

   … grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.