Sunday Sermon
sunday morning 15th Feb 2009
Acts 4v1-31 : Persecution, prayer and preaching
Last week we saw the miracle and the message that P&J were involved in.
Following the message all the people gather round to find out more.
And as they do many more believe and are saved, v4 notes 5000 male followers, thus many more when women and children are considered.
But all is not perfect! For the leaders of the people begin to take notice!
1) P&J are persecuted for their preaching. V1-22
This marks the start of the persecution for the early church.
Priests, Sadducees and the captain of the temple guard come up to P&J.
The guards were Levites and most of the priests were Sadducees. A formidable force!
Seems at this time there is a distinction between the people generally and the leaders, the people are in favour of the church to begin with but the leaders are not!
· Persecution is something that we tend to forget about when we think of the early church.
We tend have a romantic view of it. But it takes no time at all and there is persecution!
It is easy to focus on the unity, the praise, the prayer, the miracles etc and to forget about the persecution.
A) Note the reason for the persecution v2
It was because P&J were preaching the Good News and specifically the Resurrection aspect of it. The Sadducees would be upset by this because they did not believe in resurrection!
B) note what form the persecution took:
V3 P&J seized and jailed
V7 questioned by the authorities
V15 spoken of behind their backs
V17-18, 21 warned and threatened to shut up!
C) note how they responded
V8-12: took the opportunity to preach the Gospel!
V19-20: boldly ignored their leaders!
D) note the leaders astonishment:
V13 their power and authority were amazing because they had not degrees. But they had been with Jesus!
APP:
We live in an age where we lack persecution.
But we also lack unity, power, large numbers etc. Why is that the case?
There is no doubt but that we lack all these things because we lack a love and a passion for Jesus Christ and the Gospel of God!
But it does us no good just pointing out the obvious problem. We need solutions!
· The solution to our problem today is simply this: we need to get back to Jesus.
The leaders noted that P&J had “been with Jesus” v13!
In fact P&J were just like Jesus in this section! Healing and preaching just like Jesus did.
We need to pray, fellowship, study – do all we can to get back with Christ.
As we do that we can then expect persecutions, but also the good stuff that comes too!
2) the church prays v23-30
Following the persecution there is a debrief v23.
Following the debrief there is prayer v24-30.
The prayer begins by addressing the Sovereign Creator of the universe v24
From that moves quite naturally to addressing God as the one who has spoken to them in the past through the prophets v25-26 and then in the present day too, in Jesus v27-28.
So the prayer addresses the Creator God and the God of revelation, the God who speaks!
Then finishes off with two petitions: v29 asks for boldness, v30 asks for signs to accompany the message!
· Note what is missing: no request for rest from persecution!
The only request is basically asking for help so that they might get on with the work!
In other words they did not care about the costs, they did not care about the persecution!
Why not? Because they knew it was coming! Jesus had foretold it. Rather than wanting free of persecution they delighted to be following in the footsteps of their Master!
APP:
Where are our prayers focused?
Not that there is anything wrong with asking for relief from troubles!
But prayer that begins by focusing on the God As Creator and Communicator would maybe give us enough relief from our burdens before we even got to them!
The vision of God that we behold will flow into how we then pray and live. What is most important then is that we seek a biblical view of God and keep coming back to that.
3) the work goes on Preaching v31
Following the prayer there is an immediate response from heaven!
God hears and answers their prayer.
· The meeting place is shaken: showing God is here
· They are filled with the Spirit – that they may go out to preach boldly!
We end where we begun! P&J preaching leads to trouble, but then they all get back on with telling the world all that Jesus has done!
APP
We begun by noting the lack of all the early church experiences in the church today.
We noted to the remedy: we need to get back to Christ.
This final verse shows that if we pray and seek Him again, he will answer and come to our aid!
We need this encouragement as part of our vision of God. He is the one who hears and answers prayer!
Our prayer to him is never a waste of time.
One specific prayer that we all need to engage in is prayer for the preaching of the word!
This surely is one of our most basic fundamental Christian commitments: prayer for the preaching of the word!
sunday evening 15th Feb 2009
Rom 8v18-25
Last week we saw that because the Christian was someone who was occupied and owned by God, the Christian had a duty to work out his salvation.
Further we saw that as we worked at fulfilling our obligation to the Spirit certain benefits flowed – adoption into Gods family, assurance of salvation and an expected inheritance!
But there was a condition attached to that inheritance – sharing in the suffering!
Now Paul moves on.
Waiting seems to be the theme: in the waiting, we long, we groan, and we hope:
1) A longing for glory v18-21
V18 The believer longs for glory to outweigh the suffering
Glory is usually used in reference to a manifestation of God – when his radiance/ beauty is seen! But here we are told that the glory is going to be “revealed in us”!
V19 The creation, that is subject to suffering also longs for the glory of the sons of God to be revealed. It waits expectantly. Why?
V20-21 Because that will mean creations freedom too.
Creation came under the curse and is longing to share in the freedom of Gods children!
The sufferings that we have to go through on earth are nothing in comparison to the Glory that is to be revealed in us.
So much so that the creation itself longs for the revelation of the children of glory, because on that day the creation will be liberated from the curse of the Fall.
App:
· Need to keep the glory in view as we suffer in this life!
· The creation round about us is good. The creation will share with us the glory to come.
2) As we wait we groan for glory v22-23.
In the mean time, as we wait for the Glory to be revealed we Groan!
This is the “doing” part of waiting.
V22 the whole creation has been groaning – like in childbirth,
‘Groaning’ – sharing in the pain together, sighing!
V23 the believer groans too – waiting for the new bodies, the suffering we experience in the body just now will result in new eternal, incorruptible, heavenly bodies!
‘Groaning’ here is a slightly different word, points more to a discontent with the present situation. The believer already has a glimpse of the future glory because in Christ we already have so much – no condemnation, adoption, assurance, indwelling of the Spirit etc!
Having tasted these things no wonder we groan for more.
App:
Groaning is an important factor in our walk!
It speaks of the hard shift that we need to put in as we work for our full salvation.
· Note the middle ground that groaning is.
On the one extreme it is not moaning. That is complaining about everything! Being depressed and depressing about everything!
On the other extreme it is not giving up and doing nothing!
Groaning has an end in sight, a purpose – and that purpose is new life!
Groaning is work, it involves us in prayer and dedication to Christ.
It is right that we groan in this way, that we are discontented with our present situation and that we look forward to the end!
3) As we wait we are hopeful and patient v24-25
V24 now that we are saved and know what to expect we have great hope!
V25 as we wait we need great patience and perseverance.
This points to the fact that we do not have it all yet! Not by a long, so we need patient endurance.
App:
Waiting can be the hardest experience of all. It can be painful to wait. But we all need to wait. None of us are taken up to heaven the moment we believe!
We wait. So how do we wait?
a) hopefully. (Rom5.2f). Our longing and our groaning are sustained by our hope.
The hope of Glory, full salvation etc all of this is what inspires and sustains our waiting
b) patiently/persistently. (Rom5.3 suffering produces perseverance/patience).
Two words are used in original to describe what NIV has as patience and NKJV has as perseverance.
Basically it means we wait with a dogged commitment or patient endurance.
Our minds are set and nothing can change us. Also total confidence in God is implied.
We are patient, our minds are set, because we have confidence in God.
