ON THEIR RELEASE, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
“ ‘Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
26The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together against the Lord
and against his Anointed One.’
27Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
Original Meaning
WE NOW LOOK at the response of the early church to the proscribing of evangelism, their supreme task (4:21). The apostles, upon release from the authorities, went back to “their own people and reported” (v. 23) what had happened. This section describes the response of the early church to this new threat as well as the assurance they receive from the Lord.
Praying Together (4:23–24a)
IN VERSE 23, there is no unanimity about who is meant by “their own people” (hoi idioi). It is sometimes translated as “their companions” (NASB).1 It is probably a smaller company rather than the whole church.
The immediate response of this group is to pray (v. 24). Though only one prayer is given, Luke says, “They raised their voices together.” It is unlikely that, as some have suggested, they prayed the same thing under divine inspiration. I prefer the interpretation of the nineteenth-century commentator J. A. Alexander, that one person prayed and “the whole company gave audible assent” to what he said. It was a common practice in biblical times to express assent by saying “Amen.” Deuteronomy 27:15–26 gives a recitation of the Levites, which elicited twelve “Amens”—one after each affirmation.2 Quietly saying something like “Amen” or “Yes, Lord” helps a person to concentrate better and participate more fully in the prayer of someone else.
The word translated “together” is one of Luke’s favorite words, homothymadon.3 We noted earlier the question whether this word should take the strong meaning “with one accord,” which is its etymological meaning, or a milder form “together,” which is how NIV translates it.4 Whatever the meaning, the word indicates a unity among the Christians as they prayed.
Affirming God’s Sovereignty (4:24b–28)
MOST OF THIS prayer is a reflection on the sovereignty of God. Even the way God is addressed, “Sovereign Lord,” is significant. This translates a single word, despotes, used here rather than the more usual word kyrios. Despotes was used for the relation of a master to his slave. Classical writers used it for someone who had absolute powers, and it is from this use that we get the English word “despot.” Josephus says it was used in connection with confessing Caesar as lord.5 The Greeks sometimes used it for their gods, and the LXX uses it a few times for God. In the New Testament it is used three times each for God6 and for Jesus,7 indicating that the Christians found it a helpful, though not common, designation.8
The content of the prayer shows the wisdom of the translation “sovereign Lord.” When this title is put together with the Christians’ affirmation that God is Creator (v. 24b), we see that his sovereignty over creation is being proclaimed. The implication is that the One who created the world is more powerful than those whom he created. Therefore, nothing can thwart his plans.
The prayer goes on to assert how God’s sovereignty has been revealed in history. First comes a quotation from Psalm 2:1–2 about the power of those who are opposed to God (vv. 25–26). There is a note of cynicism here. The word translated “rage” is used in “late Greek writers, primarily of the neighing of high-fed, spirited horses.”9 William Barclay comments, “They may trample and toss their heads; in the end they will have to accept the discipline of the reins.”10 The great thrusts of evil are the work of one whose power is limited. Satan is on the loose, but he is on a leash. Moreover, these people may have great plans, but they are “in vain” (kenos). This word means “empty things.”
Verse 26 continues with the theme of opposition to God by presenting the general principle that throughout history, the powers of this world have stood against the cause of God and of Christ. Verse 27 cites the death of Christ as a specific application of this principle. At that time there was an unprecedented joining of all the powerful forces. Herod and Pilate, who had been enemies before the day of the trial, became friends. So what chance did Jesus have? It seemed like a great defeat. The people even scoffed at him and made jokes to his face. But God foresaw the evil and planned to do something good out of it (v. 28). He used it to do the greatest thing that ever happened in the history of humanity: He won its salvation.
Verses 24–26 are saturated with Scripture. This is typical of many spontaneous prayers in the Bible (e.g., Jonah in Jonah 2; Mary and Zechariah in Luke 1). Scripture had been stored in the minds and hearts of biblical people, ready to be harnessed in times of need.
Two Requests (4:29–30)
AFTER THAT EXTENDED reflection of God’s sovereignty, these believers give only one passing reference to their problem (v. 29)! Earlier they had reflected on the phenomenon of opposition to the work of God. But that was in order to demonstrate that history shows that opposition is always used by God to fulfill something good. When we gaze at our sovereign God, we need only to glance at our problems. The request they make is not for wisdom, protection, or favor with the authorities. All these are appropriate petitions, of course. But this prayer is for the ability to be obedient to Christ’s command to them to preach the gospel.
The second request of the disciples is that God will show his power through “miraculous signs and wonders” (v. 30). It is significant that the only two requests in this prayer have to do with evangelism, which has just been outlawed! These people have a consuming passion for evangelism, and the only practical things that come to mind in this time of crisis are related to fulfilling the evangelistic task.
God’s Response to the Prayer (4:31)
IN THE OLD TESTAMENT the shaking of a place (v. 31) was a sign for a theophany, that is, a manifestation of God in a visible form (Ex. 19:18; Isa. 6:4). I. Howard Marshall says, “It would have been regarded as indicating a divine response to prayer.”11 It was God’s way of indicating that he was present there and would answer the prayer. Next, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” This is not a fresh baptism, but a fresh filling.12 This is another instance in Acts where filling does not describe the characteristic of a person, but a special anointing. As in most of these cases, the result of the filling is proclamation. G. Campbell Morgan believes that “the new filling was intended to prevent the development of incipient fear.”13 Certainly when we experience God in a fresh way, one of the first things we receive is courage. The revelation of God makes us affirm with Paul, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).
Thus, it is not surprising to find verse 31 ending with the announcement that the believers “spoke the word of God boldly.” The same words are used here as in the prayer for boldness in verse 29. Luke uses the imperfect tense for “spoke.” In other words, as Bruce suggests, they “continued to declare the word of God with freedom of speech.”14
Bridging Contexts
WE HAVE ALREADY said that prayer is an important feature in Acts. Our passage gives us the longest prayer recorded in Acts. Presumably Luke intends this to be an example of prayer, especially of prayer in a time of crisis. The prayer ends with the seal of God’s approval (v. 31). The features we see in this prayer should therefore be relevant to us today as we too face trials. Several key points emerge from this passage regarding praying in times of crisis.
Strength to face suffering. Three keys gave strength to the disciples in this crisis. (1) The first is united fellowship. The disciples were in one accord as they prayed (vv. 23–24a). The fellowship of the believers is a key theme in Acts, and we need not be surprised that this comes to the fore in a time of crisis. As Daniel shared and prayed with his friends when he heard of King Nebuchadnezzar’s intent to kill all his wise men (Dan. 2:17), Peter and John shared and prayed with their own people when their supreme task was made illegal. Later, when Peter was in prison at night, “the church was earnestly praying to God for him” (Acts 12:5).
We noted earlier that the individualism of contemporary society has caused us to lower our standards of fellowship. One of the saddest results of this is that it leaves us ill-equipped for crises. The apostles shared what happened and prayed together. Three things can strengthen us today as well: We meet with our colleagues—“our own people”—who know us and are committed to us, we share our situation with them, and we pray together.
(2) The next major key giving strength to the disciples is the sovereignty of God, which was the primary focus of the prayer (vv. 24b–28). Because God is sovereign over the events of history, we have nothing ultimately to fear if we are obedient. That truth should give us hope and courage amidst crises.
(3) The final key comes from the fact that this prayer is saturated in Scripture (vv. 24b–27), as were the spontaneous prayers of Jonah (Jonah 2:2–9), Mary (Luke 1:46–55), and Zechariah (1:68–79). Scriptures hidden in the heart can minister to us in our times of need. In a crisis, we often do not have time to refer to the Scriptures to see how they can address our situation. The words of the Bible need to be stored in our hearts so that we can draw on them in a crisis. Like the animals that store food during the summer for the cold season, we too must spend time in God’s Word as a daily habit. Then when crises hit, that Word hidden in the heart will minister to us. David said, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Ps. 119:11).
The Christians in Acts were saturated in Scripture. The Bible figured in their discussions before they made decisions (1:20); it formed the heart of their sermons (2:14–41) and of their defense when brought to trial (7:2–50). From their reserves of Bible knowledge they could draw out passages that spoke to situations they faced. All in all there are about two hundred references to the Old Testament in Acts, either by direct quotation, synopsis of a passage, or allusion to some event.15 The early Christians challenge us to be similarly saturated in Scripture.16
The two requests. Following their gaze at God, the problems facing these believers received only a glance, while their major request had to do with obedience (v. 29). Today too obedience to God should be our primary concern when we face crises.
But what do we do with the second request of these believers—for signs and wonders to accompany their ministry (v. 30)? In our discussion of 2:42–47 we sought to establish the validity of a ministry of signs and wonders. But should we pray such a prayer today? Several objections can be brought to this. One is that signs and wonders ceased with the apostolic age. But we have said that this does not seem to stand the scrutiny of Scripture.
Another objection is that the reappearance of signs and wonders in recent years in the church has resulted in many abuses and in the obscuring of the heart of the gospel in evangelistic ministry. But as we noted earlier, abuse of a biblical principle is no cause for us to be afraid of the right use of it.
Still others might say that signs and wonders are relevant with uneducated and simple-minded people, but do not work with sophisticated people. In Acts, however, even sophisticated people became open and finally responded to the gospel through the medium of signs and wonders. Note Sergius Paulus, the Roman proconsul, who is described as “an intelligent man” (13:7) and is said to have come from a distinguished family.17 Moreover, Paul healed the father of “Publius, the chief official of the island” of Malta, which opened the door for a healing ministry in the island (28:7–9). Then and now influential and powerful people have become receptive to the gospel through the prayers offered for them in a time of need, when they faced a situation that they could not control. So we too can pray the prayer of the apostles that if it pleases God, he will open the hearts of people to the gospel through the performing of some miracle among them.
God assures his troubled servants. What should we make of the shaking of the place after the prayer (v. 31)? This is an event that is not repeated in Acts (though what happened on the day of Pentecost had some similarities). It was a sign to the disciples of the presence of God (cf. also Ex. 19:18; Isa. 6:4). But we should also remember that on one occasion God did not reveal himself to a troubled servant of his through a wind, a fire, or an earthquake, but through “a gentle whisper” (1 Kings 19:11–13). God can use various means to speak to our troubled souls in order to indicate that he is with us.
God does not have to act in this way. But he knows how much strain we can take, and at crucial times he comes to us with a revelation of himself that calms our troubled minds. He did this through a vision to Paul when he faced much opposition in Corinth, which reassured him and urged him to keep on ministering there (18:9–10). This must have been a great encouragement to the apostle, for he stayed there “for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God” (v. 11). After Paul’s arrest and trial on his last visit to Jerusalem, he had a vision of the Lord that told him that he would testify in Rome (23:11). At a crucial time during the disastrous voyage by ship to Rome, an angel stood beside him at night and encouraged him (27:24). We can certainly glean an abiding principle from these instances that God often assures his servants in times of crisis.
Contemporary Significance
THIS PASSAGE HELPS those who are going through a difficult time. In 1983, just after the worst riot we had in the twenty-year ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka,18 the first message I preached was on this passage. In the past few years this passage more than any other text in the Bible has sustained me and given me the courage to persevere.
How fellowship helps in times of crisis. Like Peter and John we too must develop the discipline of going to our “support group” in times of crisis (v. 23) for strength. (1) When we meet with our colleagues (cf. “their own people” in v. 23) who know us and are committed to us, we will receive great strength and courage from knowing that we are not alone. When we are under attack, it is easy to get discouraged and to lose our boldness and compromise by not being totally obedient to our call. It is also easy to act rashly, creating unnecessary problems to the cause of the gospel. The strength of community helps overcome these temptations.
It is therefore important that workers under threat or facing opposition be undergirded by companions in Christ. If they are working in distant areas, people should go to them regularly, or they should be expected to come regularly to where there are other colleagues. This may seem to be a waste of time and money, but in the long run it is worth it.
(2) When we share our situation with our support group, we can unburden ourselves to them. How sharing clears the air! It helps us to look at problems rationally. When we keep it to ourselves, we can become so overwhelmed by the emotional influences of the situations that we cannot think straight about the problems. But when we share it with others, we are forced to think things through; otherwise, our colleagues will not be able to understand what is going on.
(3) When we are together with our support group, we can spend time praying together. The significance of partnership in a crisis is not only the strength that we give each other; being together also causes us to motivate each other to seek God, who is the source of our strength. When we are alone, we can be so engulfed by our problems that we lose sight of the sovereignty of God. Being with fellow believers helps us to direct our attention to God because he is the reason for our being united to each other.
As noted above, the word homothymadon implies that the early Christians were united in this time of crisis. Maintaining this unity is a key way to prepare for crises that we will encounter. Sometimes at our staff meetings I find the staff reluctant to pray. This is unnerving for me as their leader, but I have come to regard this as a sign of health. The staff who refuse to pray will not permit a hypocritical situation of praying as if there were no problems, when there are actually serious problems that need to be ironed out. Of course, we must then take the initiative to do something about these problems. If we are unable to pray together because of disunity, we must struggle with the causes of disunity until we can come to a situation of unity that enables us to pray. We meet the people concerned and confront them with the things that bother them. The day we get used to living with such problems without confronting them is the day when a deadly cancer has infected the body. It will do its work of destruction and cause spiritual death.
Crises can often break marriages and destroy the peace of churches. The individuals were not united with each other, but they were able to hide this from public view until troubles came. Then the weakness of the relationship was revealed as people began to fight over how to respond to the crisis or they blamed each other for the crisis. But if there is unity before the crisis, usually the crisis helps to deepen such unity. If, however, crises reveal a lack of unity, leaders realize they must take remedial steps, with the result that unity is deepened.
How a vision of God’s sovereignty helps in times of crisis. The perspective of God’s sovereignty, the major theme of the prayer in these verses, is perhaps the most important teaching that Christians need to have in times of crisis. When we are going through a crisis, the enemy seems so powerful and his schemes so well planned that we feel weak in comparison. Christians serving God in difficult and unreached areas feel like this sometimes, especially when opponents of the gospel use the authority of the ruling powers to attack them. Those working in inner cities, with drug addicts and with abused children, in remote areas, and in the business world have all testified to this sense of powerlessness. But they do not need to be discouraged. Evil may seem to have won the day, but history will show that God used that temporary loss to further the agenda of the kingdom.
We see a dual perspective in this prayer. It takes into account the full force of the enemy—and let’s face it, the enemy is powerful. We would do well to know the forces that attack us and to anticipate their moves. Shortsighted “positive thinking” will not do. Biblical positive thinking takes into account the enmity of the evil one to the things of God. There will be suffering, and it may be quite severe. But God will turn it into good. While the prayer takes evil into account, before and after that accounting is a description of God and his ways. Evil is a reality, but God is a deeper and more powerful reality.
Thus, we have courage to be obedient even to death, for we know that obedience leading to death will be used as a stepping-stone for victory by God. The disciples did not know here what was in store for them. What in fact did happen was that the persecution intensified. Stephen was martyred, and after that the people were scattered (8:1). But great progress took place for the cause of the gospel.19 God proved his sovereignty by making the suffering Christians not just conquerors but more than conquerors!
Therefore, the most important thing to bear in mind in a crisis is the sovereignty of God. An envoy from the Pope once met Martin Luther and threatened him with what would follow if he persisted in his course. He warned him that in the end all his supporters would desert him. “Where will you be, then?” he asked. Luther replied, “Then, as now, in the hands of God.”20
For these disciples a vision of sovereignty seemed to have come at once. But for other biblical characters it came only after a time of grappling (see the book of Job; Ps. 73; Jer. 15). We must not rest until that vision comes to us. At such times what we know of God (i.e., our theology) must address our experience with the truth of sovereignty, even though that truth may seem to run counter to what we are experiencing. This is what the psalmist did in Psalm 42–43. Three times we find the refrain, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (Ps. 42:5, 11; 43:5). The psalmist is addressing his experience with what he knows of the sovereignty of God. To those who grapple in this way God will give a revelation of himself that leaves them stronger in their trust in him.
In 1874 a French steamer collided with another ship and sank, with almost everyone on board being drowned. A Christian woman on the ship, Mrs. Spafford from Chicago, was saved by a sailor who found her floating in the water, but her four children died in this accident. Her husband, Horatio Spafford, was not on the ship and received a telegram from Wales from his wife with the words, “Saved alone.” Two years later he wrote a hymn in commemoration of the death of his children.
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows, like sea billows, roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.21
Spafford had learned to apply the principle of God’s sovereignty to every situation he faced.
We should add that belief in God’s sovereignty does not give us immunity from fear. Fear is a natural human emotion in the presence of danger. But when we experience such fear, we should address it with our belief in God’s sovereignty, which will enable us to concentrate on obedience without compromising and choosing an easier path. By taking fear into consideration we can also act wisely under pressure. Christians do not need to be foolhardy in their response to danger and unnecessarily cause trouble for themselves through such folly.
Bible Christians. We have a great challenge today to develop men and women of the Word, who can face crises with the strength that Scripture hidden in them can give. The early Christians were what John Wesley liked to call the early Methodists: Bible Christians. Actually they were following the example of their Master, Jesus, who in the Gospels referred to the Old Testament at least ninety times.22 The attitude we are talking about was well expressed by Charles Spurgeon: “It is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible until at last you come to talk in scriptural language, and your spirit is flavored by the words of the Lord, so that your blood is bibline and the very essence of the Bible flows through you.”23 Spurgeon said in one of his sermons, “Be walking Bibles.”24
I think the biggest crisis facing the evangelical church today is a spiritually weak leadership. We wilt when crises come. We act without adequate spiritual strength in the face of conflict, criticism, hardship, persecution, and temptation. We say we accept the Bible’s authority, but in a crisis that authority seems to be forgotten so that we act in unbiblical ways. A major cause for this may be that the average Christian leader does not give time for diligent daily study, meditation, and application of the Word. If that is so, we are in serious trouble, for if our leaders exhibit this deficiency, what can we expect from the members of the church?
The priority of obedience in times of crisis. We noted that the first request that the disciples made was for boldness in being obedient to Christ’s command. This is because in any time of crisis, the supreme battle we have is the battle for obedience. No evil power can thwart God’s marvelous plan. The only way this can happen is by our disobedience—by our not doing what we should do or not saying what we should say. Our obedience depends on availing ourselves of God’s enablement for living the Christian life. If we do that, God will give us victory. The biggest enemy is not our circumstances or the wickedness and injustice of the world; rather, it is our own proneness to disobedience. D. L. Moody is reputed to have said that he had more trouble with D. L. Moody than with any other person he had met.
A colleague of mine once went with two volunteers in the eastern part of Sri Lanka for a weekend of ministry. During this time they were caught in the midst of an unexpected flare-up of the conflict in our land. Their host died of gunshot injuries, and all three were hospitalized with head injuries. They called us and requested us to come and bring them back. It was not safe for them to use public transport. We wondered how we could do that. Youth for Christ had only one vehicle—a van, quite new at that time. People said we should not take the van, for it could get taken by force by militants on the dangerous route. Some asked me and a colleague of mine not to go since, if something happened to us, Youth for Christ would be in serious trouble.
While we were deciding what to do, my stomach was tight with tension. After much prayer and discussion, we decided that my colleague and I would go to that area in our new van. The moment the decision was made, it was as if a huge burden was lifted off me. The tension was gone, for we had prayed and discerned what we thought was God’s will. Now there was nothing to fear. The trip turned out to be a pleasant one, which helped build a deep tie between those we brought home and me.
How God’s assurance helps in times of crisis. We said that God often reassures the faithful when they encounter crises. God does not always act in this way. Sometimes he lets us be subjected to long silences, which some have called “the dark night of the soul.” Though it may be difficult to go through these periods of silence, they ultimately deepen our faith. Yet in a time of crisis it is right for us to seek his face as the disciples did here. In one such time David said, “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple” (Ps. 27:4). When David sought God in his house at time of crisis, he was probably “looking for the divine word or action that would satisfy the longing in his heart.”25
God has his way of confirming to his children that he knows what is happening and that he is involved in the situation. Usually this confirmation comes when we are seeking God in prayer. I have often found that it comes during my devotional time, in the form of a clear message from the Word relating to the situation I am facing. I am delightfully surprised at the providence of God in getting me to read a passage appropriate to what I am going through.
At other times God’s assurance comes through something that happens to us: We read or hear something that speaks specifically to us; someone gives us a gift of money in a time of serious financial crisis; someone says a word of encouragement during a time of deep discouragement; God gives us a glimpse of how he has used us at a time when we feel useless. God can even use a miraculous means like a dream, a vision, or a prophetic utterance. Whatever the means, God uses it to comfort us and help us to persevere along the path of obedience.
Two workers who belonged to a missions movement Youth for Christ helped start had seen many people turn to the Lord in an unreached area. One day they were badly assaulted by people of the majority community. When we told the police about this, they took no notice. They even chided our landlord for renting his house to Christians. The workers and new believers felt weak and vulnerable. One day I got a phone call from one of the workers to say that an armed gang was going to the homes of the believers in the middle of the night and threatening them. It was a Saturday, and I told my colleague that I would come in time for the Sunday worship service.
As I was preparing for the service that evening, something made me ask God for a special visitation upon those people. When I went to that village, I found the people shaken by the events. During the worship time I felt urged to repeat my prayer for some intervention from God that would calm these troubled people. That intervention came as I was about halfway through my sermon. A policeman walked in and asked me to come out. Outside was the police chief for the entire region. He told me that he knew about us and about the trouble we had been through. He told us not to be afraid, for they would look after us. I was amazed, considering their earlier hostile response. I went back to the people and told them about my prayer asking God to speak to them and about how God had just spoken through the police chief. The people were so thrilled that we felt we needed a time of praise before I could proceed with my sermon! God had spoken to assure his troubled children.26