Worship

“Battle Belongs” by Phil Wickham

Scripture

“On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. ‘Sovereign Lord,’ they said, ‘you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You 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? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.” Indeed 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. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’

“After 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.” -Acts 4:23-31

A Prayer of Unity and Power

What you have just read is the longest prayer recorded in the book of Acts! It is anchored in the sovereignty of God, the Word of God stored up in these Christ followers, and confirmation with the presence of God. The believers were praying as one person with one voice, and the Lord powerfully responded. The unity of the early Church in prayer was something so beautiful. And in the face of tensions and persecution, their unity transformed this Church from stepping into timidity or fear to launching them into boldness for the sake of the gospel.

What They Didn’t Pray For

What I want to focus our attention on is what the Church did not pray in the face of such suffering or persecution. If you look closely, you will see that they never asked to be delivered or spared from suffering. They didn’t seek protection or to be invisible from the enemy. They didn’t ask the Lord to pay back their enemies for what they were enduring. Instead, they turned their hearts toward the opposition and essentially prayed, “As we face this opposition, don’t let us shrink back or compromise. Keep working Your sovereign purposes through us for Your glory.” This group of fiery Jesus followers recognized their frail humanity and pressed into Jesus in that hour, desiring more that the gospel advance than their lives be preserved.

Church, would we forsake, once and for all, self-preservation for the advancement of the Kingdom of God?

These believers were living in great intensity because of not only a fear of the religious leaders but also a fear of Rome. They had every opportunity to retreat. No one had led them this way before, and they saw what happened to Jesus. Instead, filled with the Holy Spirit, we see in just the first four chapters what the power of the indwelling Christ ensues in a surrendered vessel. The spirit of fear was just as present as the Spirit of God, but they didn’t decide to pick that up! Instead, they decided to fight the battle on their knees, asking for more boldness, not more protection. Everywhere I hear about this great paradox of prayer is in places where persecution is the highest. For those of us in America, we have perfected the “protect me, hide me, save me, cause my enemy to flee” type of prayer. What if we dared to switch our internal dialogue to “increase my boldness, give me strength to endure, let the gospel advance through my life no matter what it costs me”?

“The church aligns itself with Christ and his sufferings. In this hostile first-century context, having more boldness meant more gospel preaching, but that peaching would inevitably put believers in difficult circumstances. In their mission, then, the church prayed for boldness and perseverance rather than comfort. They knew Jesus was worth more than their lives.” -Tony Merida, “Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Acts,” emphasis added

Had this band of Jesus followers not been marked with such unparalleled boldness, the gospel would have had a hard time advancing. The power of God would have been minimal if self-preservation was of the highest priority. Instead, you see pre-crucifixion and pre-Pentecost fear and hiding being transformed into radical surrender when Christ is resurrected and the promised Holy Spirit comes to live in them.

God’s Response to Bold Prayer

“The resurrection galvanized the faith of the early church. When they saw the risen Christ, when they saw His victory over death and over His enemies, when He burst alive from the tomb, a faith was born in the breasts of the Apostles and the disciples that the whole world could not extinguish. Adding to the power of that faith was the power of Pentecost, in which God the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they began to proclaim the word of God fearlessly to the whole world.” -R. C. Sproul, “Acts”

What ensued next was a powerful shaking from God, and we see a second infilling (not baptism) of the Spirit for the sake of boldness itself. The authorities of that day were standing eye to eye with the Church, and the believers had a decision to make—to stop speaking about Jesus as requested or speak even more. They pressed into the second option in their prayer, and God responded. He responded with a great shaking. We see this evidence of God’s presence through shaking in Isaiah 6:4 when the temple was filled with His glory and at the crucifixion (Matthew 27:51) when the curtain was torn in two. Now these believers were filled with the power and glory of God and spoke the word of God boldly. The Lord revealed Himself, filled them, and they went forward with one heart and one purpose—to preach the gospel!

A Prayer for Our Time

“At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, ‘Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ The words ‘once more’ indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.’” -Hebrews 12:26-29

Will you pray this prayer with me?

Lord, crucify self-preservation in my life and fill me with radical boldness for the sake of the gospel. Let my life be marked by boldness and humility just like Yours was, Jesus. May I live persuaded in the resurrection of Christ. I pray for the Church in America, that we will once again take our place on the front lines of taking the gospel to our nation and the nations, in Jesus’ name!

A Few Key Notes

• Join us May 27-29 for a time of prayer and intercession for the global Church and for revival in the nations. Sign up for a 30-minute time slot to cover the entire 72 hours in prayer.
• Speaking of prayer, if you have a heart for intercession and want to be a part of a team that petitions the throne for God to move, join the Arise Prayer Team! Discover a rich community and grow your prayer life. We meet weekly over Zoom.