Pray gladly to speak boldly of God’s grace.

 

Sermon for Epiphany 3, January 26, 2025

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  He gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father—to whom be the glory forever and ever.  Amen.

Acts 4:23-31  ²³After Peter and John were released, they went to their own friends and reported everything the high priests and the elders had said.  ²⁴When they heard this, with one mind they raised their voices to God and said, “Master, you are the God who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them.  ²⁵By the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David, your servant, you said: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?  ²⁶The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers are gathered together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’  ²⁷For certainly, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and people of Israel, were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.  ²⁸They did whatever your hand and your plan had decided beforehand should happen.  ²⁹Now Lord, look at their threats and give to your servants the ability to keep on speaking your word with all boldness ³⁰as you stretch out your hand to heal and as signs and wonders take place through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”  ³¹After they prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken.  Also, everyone was filled with the Holy Spirit, and they continued to speak the word of God with boldness. (EHV)

Pray gladly to speak boldly of God’s grace.

Dear bold believers in Christ Jesus,

            Back in about 1960, a country singer by the name, Ferlin Husky, sang “When troubles surround us, when evils come, the body grows weak, the spirit grows numb.”  I don’t know how the lyrics of that song, “Wings of a dove,” affected his hearers concerning the troubles of their day.  We tend to imagine life was simpler and more peaceful back then, but today, because of the rapid publicity given to any news story, troubles constantly batter us, and many of us may think troubles have become overwhelming.

Of course, trouble isn’t a new phenomenon in our world.  Murders have been happening since Adam and Eve had their first few children.  War has been wiping out lives for almost that long as well.  Rebellion against parents and immorality didn’t begin in the 1960s, but thousands of years ago God destroyed the world through the great flood precisely because “The Lord saw that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that all the thoughts and plans they formed in their hearts were only evil every day.” (Genesis 6:5)  Today, whenever you turn on the news, or open the browser on your phone or computer, most of what you see will, again, be bad news, or reports of people applauding perversion, and many mocking the truths God has given through His Word.

Now, all of this most likely doesn’t do much to encourage you, and as we explore the situation behind our sermon text, one might expect that Jesus’ apostles, also, would have been discouraged.  Instead, though, their example encourages us to Pray gladly to speak boldly of God’s grace.

The men Jesus sent out to proclaim the Good News were in trouble with the authorities.  The apostles were preaching in the name of the very Man the Jewish rulers had killed to rid themselves of His supposed troublemaking.  Now, some weeks after Jesus’ body had been cast into the tomb only to rise again on the third day, and after Jesus’ ascension to heaven, those same Jewish leaders were afraid of how Jesus’ disciples’ preaching about Jesus might affect their positions of honor in the land.  In fact, the members of the Sanhedrin would have gladly executed all those apostles, except that the crowds were against that conspiracy, so to maintain some measure of public respect, the rulers were forced to back away from their murderous desires.  Then, because of a miraculous healing, the crowds were accepting these apostles as messengers from God, which left the authorities with few immediate options for punishment, so the rulers and elders threatened them and commanded them not to preach in Jesus’ name.  However, remaining faithful to the Lord, the apostles were gladly refusing to obey that command.

Peter, John, and the other apostles were well aware that this wasn’t the end of their troubles.  They knew from Jesus’ own words that persecution, and even death, would come their way for carrying on this ministry.  That brings us to our sermon text.  Here, we see the result of what we might expect would make those men afraid.  “After Peter and John were released, they went to their own friends and reported everything the high priests and the elders had said.  When they heard this, with one mind they raised their voices to God.”  Just imagine, these two men reporting on the wicked threats and commands of the ruling council, and that congregation of believers responded with bold and confident prayer!

First, notice what those believers did not pray for.  They didn’t complain about injustice.  They didn’t ask God to destroy their enemies (That, in itself, was a complete change from earlier in their lives).  They really didn’t even ask God to protect them from the evil they would undoubtedly face.  No, those early Christian believers began their prayer, instead, with recognition of God’s power and the truth of His Word:

"Master, you are the God who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them.  By the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David, your servant, you said: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers are gathered together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’  For certainly, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and people of Israel, were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.  They did whatever your hand and your plan had decided beforehand should happen.” 

They offered up their glad thanksgiving for all God’s mercy to them, but they didn’t stop there.  Rather, they quoted David and applauded that God is in control regardless of enemy actions.

In Romans, chapter 8, St. Paul promises that God works all things for our eternal good.  Now, God does not cause sin, and He is not the author of sin in our world.  Nevertheless, even the unrighteous anger and hatred of wicked men will be turned to God’s purpose and plan for God’s will is always done.  Jesus’ death on the cross took a conspiracy of Roman and Jewish authority and the shouts of an agitated crowd.  Those, natural enemies conspired to destroy Jesus, but while they did succeed in killing Him, it was all according to God’s eternal plan, as was Jesus’ resurrection on the third day.  God allowed the hatred and rejection of those wicked sinners to work for the good purpose of accomplishing His salvation plan.  Of course, that good thing is not a credit to the wicked, for their rejection of the Christ remains their curse.

However, we can learn from the disciples’ prayer.  They didn’t pray that God destroy their conspiring enemies.  They didn’t pray that no harm would come to themselves or other faithful Christians.  Instead, they prayed for the strength to do the will of God and for God to make His plans succeed.  They prayed, “Now Lord, look at their threats and give to your servants the ability to keep on speaking your word with all boldness as you stretch out your hand to heal and as signs and wonders take place through the name of your holy servant Jesus."  They prayed with confidence that God would continue to do the very things the defiant rulers hated.  Jesus’ disciples prayed that regardless of consequence, God should embolden them to speak His word faithfully, proudly, and confidently among all kinds of people no matter the circumstance or danger.  They asked for “the ability to keep on speaking your word with all boldness.”  Thus, they asked God to use His mighty power to bring attention to their cause so that more people might hear the Good News, and believing it receive everlasting life.

Do you recognize how the attitude of Jesus’ disciples had changed?  Once, when James and John saw that a certain Samaritan village didn’t welcome Jesus, “They asked, ‘Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?’” (Luke 9:54)  At that time, they were thinking of Jesus’ kingdom as one of power and might.  Now, after everything they had seen Jesus do, teach, and perform, they understood that God’s kingdom is one of grace.  Again, on the night Jesus was betrayed, His disciples ran away in fear, not recognizing that Jesus was in control of even that evil.  Therefore, we see that their attitudes were transformed completely.  Rather than seek to destroy their enemies, or to hide from them, they henceforth aligned with God’s will that “wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4)

So, how should you and I consider this text?  Should we consider it an interesting bit of history with little application to ourselves?  Or, should we follow their example and Pray gladly to speak boldly of God’s grace?  Our answer comes from what happened after Jesus’ followers lifted up their prayer.  The Lord himself confirmed that what they prayed for was God pleasing and good for us to emulate.  “After they prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken.  Also, everyone was filled with the Holy Spirit, and they continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” 

In answer to their prayers, God filled them with His Spirit and poured out His grace upon them all.  He blessed their work, and we know from history that their work did not go unnoticed.  Most of those apostles, and many ordinary believers, gave their lives for the preaching of the Gospel.  However, that didn’t stop the proclamation of the Good News.  Instead, it fueled the spread of the Gospel across the Mediterranean region and eventually the world.  The Christians became one in heart and mind doing God’s work of saving souls from sin.  Really, they are why we are here today. 

Because of the faithful testimony of Christ’s apostles, and the fervent prayers of fellow Christians, you and I have heard the Gospel and believed it to our salvation.  Likewise, you and I have opportunity to pass along this Good News to others around us, and many more yet to come.  God knows there is plenty of opportunity to find sinners in our world.  There is plenty of need for us to pray for boldness from God that we too might proclaim His treasures of grace so that friend and foe alike might hear the God News and believe.  Just as Jesus encouraged His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Therefore pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38)

In our times, we also hear distressing news of pagans trying to destroy God’s people by the sword or attempting to convert people to their perversions by fear and force.  At times, we too are tempted to hide from the opposition or remain silent when we have opportunity to speak about Jesus.  However, the Lord doesn’t grow His Church and grant forgiveness and salvation by intimidation or force.  Instead, God sends out humble men, often poor and simple in the eyes of the world, but well-educated in God’s ways and God’s Word.  He sends out believers like you and me, who, with confident faith and glad thanksgiving for our forgiveness and salvation, offer prayers for His power and blessing, so that we too might share His Good News in a troubled world.

Dear friends, by the power of the Holy Spirit in Word and Sacrament, God made you a follower of Christ.  Not that you must travel the world speaking to people in other tongues, but He gives you the power and opportunity to be a Good News teller at home—with your children and to your neighbors, telling them of how Jesus lived for them, died for them, and rose again, announcing with power to the world that Jesus gained the victory over sin and death.  His victory has given you forgiveness of all your sins, peace with God, and an everlasting home in God’s heaven above.  This is the message He gives you to share: peace to all who believe in Jesus, God’s Son.

Fellow servants of Christ, “When troubles surround us, when evils come, when the body grows weak, and the spirit grows numb,” Pray gladly to speak boldly of God’s grace.  Amen.

The LORD is good.  His mercy endures forever.  His faithfulness continues through all generations.  Amen.