AGM Sunday. What kind of church are we to be? What is uniquely characterizes a thriving, expanding church? The Jerusalem church was a bold church. Remember that in Acts 2:42-47 we stated the Luke intends for us to see this Jerusalem church as foundational, as they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship and to prayers and to the breaking of the bread, those are the activities that the church in every generation would participate in. Nows in chapters 3-4 we have this story of Peter and John in the temple, healing a man and its aftermath, and we get another characteristic of the Jerusalem church - its a church of bold proclamation. If the church of Jesus Christ fails to be bold in its proclamation, then we might as well give up - we will not make disciples if we’re not bod enough to proclaim the gospel. In Acts 4:1-22 we saw last week the boldness of the apostles, in Act 4:23-32 we see a portrait of a bold church.
Acts 4:23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, 25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—
Acts 4:27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 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.
- The Bold Church is Prayer-Saturated
- The Bold Church is Word-Driven
- The Bold Church is Spirit-Filed
The Bold Church is Prayer-Saturated
Some of these themes are repeated because Luke is repeating them for us that we do not miss them -that they are the keys to the boldness of the church. Prayer was the reflex of the Jerusalem church. It was their reflex when they were at a loss as to what to do after Christ left them alone in Jerusalem. It was their reflex when they trusted God to show them which of the two candidates for apostleship they should select. It was their reflex as they formed their community around the apostles teaching. And now it is there reflex as they face opposition from outside:
Acts 4:23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God
Here is the church gathered for prayer. The apostles did not just gather as the twelve here, they went to their friends - literally, “their own” - and “lifted their voices together to God”. Their first response was not to debate what they are to do in the face of this opposition. Their first response was not to plan, not to deliberate. But to pray. To gather together and pray. Again, Luke is giving us the Jerusalem church as a model of the Church Christ founded, and so we see again and again through the book of Acts the churches continuing on with this same DNA. We see the church gathered for prayer in Acts 6 - that the apostles must continue to devote themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word; in Acts 12: as the believers gathered to pray for Peter as he was in prison after James’ arrest and execution; in Acts 13, as the leaders of the Antioch church gathered in prayer and fasting to discern the Holy Spirit’s will for the next steps for the church; in Acts 14 as the missionaries installed elders in every church. The point is that prayer is the reflex for every season for every church. Make no mistake, the book of Acts records a lot of prayer by individuals in the church as well, but we must see here that the bold church is a prayer saturated church.
- Special prayer meetings leading up to and after our move.
- Some new connect groups have started up - remember to make prayer central.
- Who are you praying for?
The Bold Church is Word-Driven
The Bold Church is a church formed around the prophetic word. I want to carefully define for you what I mean by this. What I mean is that the church was skilled at handling God’s prophetic word in the scriptures and applying it to their current situation. Prophecy is not primarily about getting a fresh word from God, or hearing an audible voice or vision. It is primarily about heeding God’s word and by the Spirit applying it appropriately to a current situation. Now there is in the book Acts a few instances when the Holy Spirit reveals His will immediately to individuals or to the church - in ways that we would call prophesy. However, more often we see the church listening to God’s voice in the scriptures, heeding God’s voice, and then skillfully applying God’s word to their situation. Look at their prayer, and specifically, how they apply scripture to their situation:
“Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, 25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’— 27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
See, here is the prophesy in this passage: who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit. And as they pray they form their prayer around the Word of God in Psalm 2:1-2, seeing that the Word God spoke through David was being fulfilled in their own day. “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’ They acknowledge that there is a word of prophesy in Psalm 2, that God spoke through the mouth of David, and they recognize that the word that David spoke was not only for David, but was specifically spoken for them, for their encouragement, for their persistence as a church, for their prayer. David was the Lord’s anointed, and yes the nations raged against him, but never in David’s ministry were the ruler’s gathered together as they were against Jesus. and the church takes great encouragement in the word of God by seeing that the words written so long ago spoke to their own situation, “for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.” A prophetic church will not only teach the word of God, what it meant then, but will also proclaim to us in our current context what God is saying to us now. How do we do this? We locate God’s word in the horizon’s of scripture, as the story of Scripture unfolds, and then locate ourselves in that story.
In the unfolding story of scripture, sometimes called the Big Story, there is a beginning and end as God’s purposes move through time. The story of scripture starts in Genesis 1, “in the beginning God created the heavens’ and the earth” and moves through history until Revelation 21 in which God makes all things new and the kingdom of God is united with the kingdoms of man. In between we have the chapters of that story, in which we see the fall of mankind, the choosing of the people through whom God would bring redemption, the establishment of their nation, their ongoing idolatry and subsequent discipline, the regathering of the people in to the land, the sending of Jesus the Messiah, the commissioning and expansion of the church, and the ultimate resistance to God’s rule before his return at the end. So as we familiarize ourselves with the Big Story, and got to the Scripture to hear God’s word, we recognize the different horizon’s in which the word of God speaks. So, in this text, we have the prophetic word speaking to David’s horizon. David was king - the anointed one of Israel - and as he reflected on the resistance to the Lord and the kingdom He established, God pointed him beyond himself to the true king, the Messiah, whom God would install on Mount Zion. So God spoke to avid and His generation. But here in Acts, we have a second horizon, the Church in Jerusalem, who has witnessed the sending of the Lord’s Messiah, Jesus Christ, and have seen how the rulers of the earth took their stand against Him, that brings us to the fourth horizon, which is us now the church, for we see even in this passage that the rebellion against the Lord and the resistance against His Messiah has transferred over to us, His Church, so we still see the nations raging against the Lord’s Messiah, as they seek to silence us, the church. Ultimately, I believe there will be a fourth horizon, as in the tribulation and at the end of the millennium in the future, we will actually see the nations of the earth wage war against the Lord and against His Anointed. So this prophetic word to David has at least four horizons into which God is speaking. And so we must be careful as a Word-centred community about a couple of things:
- That we never approach the Bible simply as a book of what God was telling them back then, and not recognizing it as the Word of God that speaks to us.
- That we are careful to locate the passage we are studying in the unfolding of God’s Big Story, so that we do not rip something out of context and apply it to ourselves illegitimately. The passage: “I know the plans I have for you” was spoken to Israel at the horizon while they were in exile as a nation because of their sin. So find the original horizon first and what God is saying to them, before seeking to apply it to our own situation now.
- Notice there is a consistency to the unfolding story, because it is a story about God’s dealings with us, and God doesn’t change. So be very careful of people who say, well, that what God told them, but not he is telling us something completely different, or now he has a new word for us. That is not a prophetic church - that is a church of false prophets for they twist the word of the Lord for their own purposes.
- When we see Scripture as the unfolding of God’s Big Story, we begin to see history as His Story. That He knows the end from the beginning and is in complete control of all that ever has and ever will take place as the story unfolds. Nothing takes God by surprise and in fact He has predestined all to take place according to His plan. 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.” There is no prophesy apart from the truth of God’s Sovereignty, for God does not change and the word of the Lord stands forever. Isaiah 48 weaves these two realties of God’s transcendent sovereignty and prophetic voice, emphasizing that this is what separates the true God from Idols.
The Bold Church is a Spirit-filed church
Notice that as they prayed together, and formed their prayer around God’s prophetic word in Scripture, they did not pray for God to change their situation, they asked God to empower them. Now it’s by no means wrong to ask God to change your situation, but what if God doesn’t? Are you going to give up? They ask God to work in them them:
29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 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.
They ask God to work in them and God answers their prayer by filling them with the Holy Spirit and they continue, in the Spirit’s power to proclaim the word in the city with boldness. We teach that the Baptism of the Spirit was a historical one-time event in the birth of the church, but that there are multiple fillings of the people of God and this should be a regular occurrence in the life of a church and in the lives of believers. Praying for the Spirit’s power to fill you does not make you Charismatic, its what distinguishes us as Christian.
But there is another thing to be done as well, and that is to pray; and here I want to remind you of those blessed words of the Master, *"Every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" You see, there is a distinct promise to the children of God, that their heavenly Father will give them the Holy Spirit if they ask for His power; and that promise is made to be exceedingly strong by the instances joined to it. But he says, "How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" He makes it a stronger case than that of an ordinary parent. The Lord must give us the Spirit when we ask Him, for He has herein bound Himself by no ordinary pledge. He has used a simile which would bring dishonour on His own name, and that of the very grossest kind, if He did not give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. Oh, then, let us ask Him at once, with all of our hearts. Am I not so happy as to have in this audience some who will immediately ask? I pray that some who have never received the Holy Spirit [by this he is speaking to those not yet Christian] at all may now be led, while I am speaking, to pray, "Blessed Spirit, visit me; lead me to Jesus." But especially those of you that are the children of God, -- to you is this promise especially made. Ask God to make you all that the Spirit of God can make you, not only a satisfied believer who has drunk for himself, but a useful believer, who overflows the neighborhood with blessing. I see here a number of friends from the country who have come to spend their holiday in London. What a blessing it would be if they went back to their respective churches overflowing; for there are numbers of churches that need flooding; they are dry as a barn-floor, and little dew ever falls on them. Oh that they might be flooded!
Oh, that we might be flooded. That we might be filled!
“Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—
for truly in this city, Ottawa, there are gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, adversaries to your gospel of grace, false teachers, lost men and women, those who would shut us out and shut us up. And now, Lord, look upon them and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and to save and to show your power in the name of Jesus.”