We’re in the middle of a four part series in which Pastor David Platt instructs our prayers for the persecuted from the book of Acts. If you missed part 1, “Why Do We Pray?”, we invite you to check it out. Then keep your eyes peeled for part 3, coming later this week.
In what was the worst persecution believers had experienced up to that point, Peter and John were thrown into prison for proclaiming Christ. Immediately upon their release, amidst increasing disapproval from outside authorities, the believers prayed the words now found in Acts 4:24-31. Teaching from this passage, Pastor David now answers the question, “Who do we pray to?”
World Watch List map of countries in which Christians are most persecuted.
‘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 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, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’ 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 (Acts 4:24-31).
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Based on Acts 4, who do we pray to? Now, I know some of you are thinking, "Well, that's a weird question to ask. Of course that's a no-brainer. God would be the answer. 'Who do we pray to?' Why do you ask that?"
Well, I think it's interesting. If you look in Acts 4, these believers spend five verses telling God who He is before they ask Him for anything. Now, why would they do that? As if God needed to know who He was. As if they needed to fill God in on some new information. That wasn't their point though. What Scripture is telling us here is that if we are going to pray, we need to know the God we are praying to. We need to know who He is, and that will lead us to pray the correct way.
So, I want you to see who they were praying to. They spent five verses summing up, I believe, three characteristics of God. First of all, God is the One who is control. Amidst the disarray of Acts 4, they gather together as one family and they pray. What are the first words that come out of their mouths? "Sovereign Lord." The one who is in control. That is what it means for God to be sovereign. The word in the original language of the New Testament there is "despota,” which basically means "despot," like a ruler. An absolute ruler over people. And that's what they say to God. "God, we know that you are in control." And every verse that follows from that talks about how everything that happens in history happens at the hand of God and how He is in control. Not Satan. Satan is on a leash and God is in control of this thing.
It is huge for people in the midst of persecution and suffering to know that amidst the questions and amidst the confusion, amidst the anxiety, amidst losing your mom or your dad or your brother or sister or your son or your daughter … amidst all of that, you can look up and see that God is still on the throne. He is still in control of everything that is going on. This is their favorite phrase in Sudan. If I heard it once, I heard it a million times. You could go up to people and talk with them, saying, "Man, I am so sorry about what has happened" after just seeing bombed villages or churches or this or that. And they would look at you and say, "Oh, God is greater. God is greater because He is always in control."
Not only the One who is in control, but number two, we pray to the One who is always faithful to His Word. In Acts 4, they quote from Psalm 2. Look at the similarities there between what they were facing and what Psalm 2 is talking about. It's talking about how one day the kings of the earth, the nations, rise up against Christ, the anointed one of God. And the believers in Acts 4 say, "God, You knew that was going to happen to Your Son. The same is true, You knew it was going to happen to us. But You also said to your Son back in Psalm 2 that the ends of the earth would be His possession. He would come out victorious in this thing." And so they pray based on Psalm 2, “and we believe the same thing. We believe that you are going to show yourself faithful to your word amidst our persecution and so they prayed based on the Word of God.”
They’re praying to the One who is in control, the One who is always faithful to His Word, and number three, they pray to the One who is familiar with suffering. See how all throughout this passage they are identifying themselves with Christ. They say, "This is supposed to happen to Christ. The persecution, the suffering, the kings of the earth, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel would rise up against Him, and it all happened according to your will." And what they are saying, basically, is "If we are going to be identified with Christ, we know that the same thing is going to happen to us."
It's what we see throughout Scripture. If we are going to show the glory of Christ, then we have to show the suffering of Christ in the world.
In Acts 4, they are not praying to a God who is out there in the distance, who doesn't really have a grip on what's actually going on in the world. This is a God who is in the middle of it and who gave His life—amidst the suffering and the persecution that we see Christ endure—so that He would be familiar with it. And when we come to Him, He is the one who is familiar with suffering. Now, that's a pretty incredible God to pray to—the God who is in control, the God who is familiar with suffering and the God who is always faithful to His Word.
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The text from this blog post was taken from a sermon preached by Pastor David titled "Prayer and Persecution." You can listen to the message in its entirety here.
to offer: forgiveness, hope, empowerment, a sense of belonging and acceptance, and the knowledge that she is loved unconditionally.
ible had one goal in mind: to help mini-women see that Scripture is relevant to their lives today. Every sidebar ties the featured passage to a tween-sized personal issue, everything from getting along with siblings, to, well, getting along with God.
