Acts 4:23-31

The Believers Pray for Boldness

After they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and said, ‘Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them, it is you who said by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant:
“Why did the Gentiles rage,
   and the peoples imagine vain things? 
The kings of the earth took their stand,
   and the rulers have gathered together
     against the Lord and against his Messiah.” 
For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’ When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. 

Peter and John return to “their friends”, meaning here those that believed in Jesus. One might assume that this group, this early church, had been praying for the apostles as they appeared before the Sanhedrin. However, no assumptions are needed as to what happened after they heard Peter and John’s account of the courtroom: “They raised their voices together to God”. There was no dismay that the Sanhedrin had forbidden them to speak or teach in the name of Jesus, but rather an added conviction that God was in control and they had an irresistible need to speak about Jesus, as Peter had predicted in (Acts 4:20).

In the prayer that follows, the failed machinations of Herod and Pilate, concerning Jesus, are interpreted as simply being God’s will. Their faith is in the overarching will of God which will ultimately come to pass, no matter how hard human beings appear to do all they can to subvert God’s purposes.

This year will undoubtedly be remembered for political surprises – Brexit, general elections and coronavirus leadership across the world to name just a few of those moments. In personal terms, many readers will have wondered in their own lives if God can really be in control when one’s own life seems to be in such disarray. The answer is that, however distant you and I may feel from God, God is closer than breath to us. The free will that God has lovingly given us can lead us into all kinds of bother as well as hurting others and ourselves more than we ever know; but God wills better from us and for us, because God loves us and wants to be close.

So our week’s passages leave us on the reassuring note that, despite trials and tribulations, the Spirit of God, the heart of Jesus, fills the disciples. Nothing can separate them from the love of God. So they pray, they ask for miraculous signs and wonders, “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness”.

May those of us who are believers take both comfort and courage from the example of those early disciples.

Blessings as we pray that the Hoy Spirit may also fil us with a boldness of faith.  Be safe!  Be well!  He is Risen Indeed!

To Ponder:

• Which of the early disciples/apostles are most helpful, as examples for you, as a witness to God’s truth, justice and love? Why?
• “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly”. God may put you alongside someone today who needs both to see and hear God through you. How ready are you?