Acts 4:23-31 takes place after the miracle of tongues takes place, after Peter preached a bold and courageous sermon, and after the 3000 people were saved and baptized. It takes place after the healing of a lamb man in Acts 3, after Peter preached another bold and daring message to a crowd again about the name and power of Jesus. It was so bold and daring that it landed Peter and John in jail. Peter and John were called to answer for their actions, called to explain why they were preaching in the name and power of Jesus. Peter preached another message which really put the religious leaders on the spot. All they could do was threaten Peter and John and tell them to stop preaching in the name of Jesus. So, Peter and John were released, and we pick up our text at this point.
23 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. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.
What a great response to the threats of man! I love that they went back to their people, they went back to the other believers, some of those who had waited together in that Upper Room, and they got together to pray. I want to submit to you that Pentecost Prayer is a united effort.
The text goes on to say: “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
Those Holy Spirit-filled believers obviously believed in the sovereignty of God. It is obvious from the book of Acts that the early church saw themselves as participators in the work of God on earth. Prayer enables our hearts to be tuned to Christ’s mission and to discern how and where Jesus wants to use us. We don’t pray for God’s benefit, to get Him to work in the world, we pray for our benefit, that we can participate in the work God is already doing.
The early believers didn’t feel tension between God’s sovereignty and the work of prayer. God’s sovereignty didn’t inhibit their praying; in fact, it incentivized it. Because they believed God was in control of all things, and because they were filled with His Spirit and were being given the mind of Christ and were living in response to the will of God, their prayers were bold. As they prayed, they prayed with confidence that God was acting in the world and that He would act through their obedience to pray which was also according to His plan.
Pentecost Prayers rely upon the Sovereignty of God.
As they moved on in their prayer, they placed the persecution they were facing into its context. This wasn’t the first time God’s people had suffered persecution.
25 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? 26 The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.[b]’[c] 27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles (the Romans) and the people of Israel (the Jews) in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
What those early believers understood was that God has the power over any worldly leader who would try to stop God’s people, and even those who persecute God’s people are somehow, in the larger scheme, they somehow serve God’s purposes.
Verse 29: 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
What an incredible prayer. They said, “God, since the threats are ramping up, help us ramp up in the way we speak for You. Help us get even bolder than we have been to this point. Help us not shrink back from sharing the Gospel. Enable us to not be intimidated by those who oppose us.” They didn’t ask for life to be easy. They didn’t pray for people to stop opposing them. They prayed for courage and power to meet the situation.
As they prayed for great boldness in the face of this new persecution, they were praying not that God would change the situation, but that God would change them!
Pentecost Prayers ask for the Holy Spirit to change us.
Surely, they were reminded of the times when Jesus wasn’t well-received, when Jesus’ message invited threats, intimidation, and persecution. Yet, Jesus never backed down, and the way He continued to move forward involved strategic times of prayer. Those believers never took God’s plan for granted. They never took their ability to stay the course for granted. They prayed because they understood that prayer was a part of God’s sovereign plans.
Look at what they asked for next. Verse 30: 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
Pentecost Prayers include requests for signs and wonders (miracles).
The word, “miracle,” comes from a Latin word and it means, “object of wonder.” Miracles defy human logic. Miracles reveal God’s glorious wonder. When the apostles prayed that Jesus would enable them to perform signs and wonders they were praying that the Holy Spirit would enable them to reveal God’s glory.
“Show me Your, glory, Lord,” is one kind of prayer, but “Reveal Your glory in me,” is entirely another.
Verse 31: 31 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.
After those early believers prayed again in Acts 4:31, there was a literal shaking in the place where they met and they were filled, again, with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
Pentecost Prayers will shake things up.
That was a demonstration of the power of God right on heals of their bold prayers. When you pray Pentecost Prayers, you aren’t praying for business as usual. You are praying for life in the Spirit which is anything but predictable. I am glad they prayed for signs, miracles, and wonders to be demonstrated. If not, the book of Acts would be kind of boring. You could find references to miracles 40 times in the book of Acts. Guess how many happen outside the walls of the church? 39. I know our times of worship are powerful. I know it is encouraging to receive the ministry of prayer in this place. I know God meets with us as we hear the Word in this place, but what happens here isn’t to be the culmination of anything. It is to be the preparation for what happens outside of these walls.
Pentecost Praying prepares us to go out into the streets.
As we pray Pentecost Prayers, we will be sent out to do the ministry of Jesus in the world.
Let’s pray some Pentecost Prayers today. Let’s pray in reliance on our all-powerful, all-knowing, sovereign God. Let’s pray and ask to be changed, transformed, purified, made holy and powerful like Jesus. Let’s pray for mass signs, mass miracles and mass wonders to be demonstrations of God’s power on earth. Let’s pray for a shaking of epic proportions. Let’s pray to be made bold in the streets for the sake of the Kingdom. Let’s pray some Pentecost Prayers.
