Acts 4:23-31--The Believers Pray for Boldness

Acts 4:23-31
English Standard Version

The Believers Pray for Boldness
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’--

​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.

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It was good news that Peter and John had been released by the Sanhedrin, but not so good news that the Sanhedrin had forbid them to preach or do miracles in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.  When the disciples (that is the only name for the Church at large in Jerusalem right now) heard this, they began to pray--and it is interesting that they began to pray Scripture back to God.  So what is it that they prayed about?

First they acknowledge that Lord's sovereignty and that He is the Creator of all things, and through whom all the prophets of old spoke their message.  That's quite a lot of theology to start off a prayer with, but it centers us in the right place for what they are about to say.  As they focus on the word, they acknowledge that the foreign nations of the world would plot and scheme against them--the people of God, and it seems they have no lumped the Sanhedrin into this same category as the God-hating, idol-worshiping Gentile nations that were seen as being the enemies of God and among the "kings of the earth" and the "rulers" that would gather against the Lord's Anointed (that is the Messiah or the Christ).

This most certainly started to be fulfilled in the Old Testament when David was alive for he was partially talking about himself, but he was also prophesying not only about what would happen to Jesus at His crucifixion, but also what would happen way in the future when all the nations of the world at the end of days will have their armies gather together to attack Israel and to attempt to kill Jesus and steal the inheritance that belongs to Him and only to Him.  They are seeing and acknowledging how they their rulers had participated in the plot to kill Jesus at His crucifixion, and conspired with the Gentile nation of Rome to do so.

Yet they also acknowledge that all this was part of God's plan and something He had predestined to happen.  It is both something that God willed, and something that God would hold the individuals involved accountable for (assuming they didn't repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, but if they did, then even their sin of murder would be covered by the blood of Jesus).  Only after they have acknowledged that God is completely in control and that God is working out all things according to His good plan, even things that look really awful to us do they being to pray for their current circumstances and how they would like God to work in and through them and why.

They ask the Lord to see and hear the threats made against them (obviously God knows about them, but they wish God to turn His attention towards them to intervene in some way), and to give them holy boldness to do the right thing in the face of this opposition.  They also pray for the Lord to continue to stretch out His hand to work miracles of healing and other signs and wonders being done in the name of Jesus to accompany the gospel message they are speaking.  Remember that signs and miracles are how the Jews were told to put a prophet (someone who claimed to have a message from God) to the test to see if their message was true or false.

God did not make them wait to hear His response.  Immediately the place in which they were meeting was shaken (probably speaking of an earthquake, but it could be simply referring to the Holy Spirit moving among all of them in power so that the people themselves were "shaken"), they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and all of the disciples (now bordering on 5,000 or more disciples (see the beginning of chapter 4 where it says the total number of disciples was about 5,000 at this point) all speaking with the Holy Spirit and boldly proclaiming the gospel--and the Sanhedrin had been worried about just Peter and John and the lame man that had been healed.  They just made the problem way worse for themselves and made it obvious that they had taken sides against the Lord Himself because the Lord responded in a way where He filled His people with the Holy Spirit to speak HIs message and work His miraculous signs (things they could not do) and it would show the Lord's approval of Peter's and John's decision to say "We must obey God, not men" in this situation.  It is understandable why the Jews are going to fear that these men and this gospel message that they are trying to squelch will "turn the whole world upside down" if let it go unhindered.  The church has faced opposition from without, but it is about to face some opposition from within in chapter 5, before we get there though, we will talk about how the Church is restored to a place of everyone taking care of each others needs according to the blessing that the Lord has provided to each of them.