1.     I would like to speak this morning on the importance of prayer.  Acts 4:23 tells us that as soon as Peter and John were released by the religious leaders (Sanhedrin), “they went to their own company.”  In other words, they went to see their fellow Christians.

2.     There were no church buildings back in those days.  Perhaps they went to the upper room (1:13).

3.     Then after giving them a report of what happened, verse 24 says, the apostles “lifted up their voice to God (prayed) with one accord.”

4.     Acts 4:31 says, “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken…” That must have been some prayer meeting.

5.     You will notice it does not say that when the praise band played, the place was shaken.  It does not say that when they started speaking in tongues, the place was shaken.  It does not say that when they laid down on the floor and started making strange noises the place was shaken.

6.     No; the Bible says, “And when they had prayed…”

7.     I have heard older preachers say (on more than one occasion), “I am old.  Looking back I have only one regret – I wished I had spent more time in prayer.”

8.     I remember back when I was a student in Bible college.  An old preacher was preaching to us in chapel, and he said, “Learn how to pray.  If you learn how to pray, you will learn how to preach.”

I. BECAUSE THERE ARE MANY ADVERSARIES

1.     I like to hear prayers that are saturated with Scripture.  That is how men and women in the Bible prayed.  That is how the apostles prayed.

2.     Here in Acts 4:25 and 26 they quoted Psalm 2, a great Messianic Psalm.  “Why did the heathen rage?” (4:25).  The heathen are still raging.  Lately they have been raging over cartoons.

3.     The heathen are raging over all sorts of foolish things.  They “imagine vain things” (Acts 4:25).

4.     Let me remind you that though the heathen rage, God will have the last laugh (Psalm 2:4).  I am glad that God has a sense of humor.

5.     This world is dominated by people who are opposed to God but the Bible clearly teaches that God will deal with them (Psalm 2:5).

6.     Sinners must be reconciled to God through the Lord Jesus Christ.  Psalm 2:12 says, “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry…”

7.     We are surrounded by adversaries.  And it has always been this way for God’s people.  Look at Acts 4:27 – Herod, Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel – all gathered together against the Lord Jesus Christ.

8.     It is the same way today – the Muslims, the terrorists, the liberals, the communists, the homosexuals, the religious apostates – are all gathered together against the Lord Jesus Christ. 

9.     G. Campbell Morgan, in his commentary on the book of Acts, wrote these words, “Jesus had been crucified because of His testimony to the spiritual, in an age characterized by material thinking.”  This persecution of the apostolic church was initiated by the Sadducees, who were materialists (cf. 4:1-3).

10. G. Campbell Morgan was right in stating that it was an age characterized by material thinking. And yet every age has been characterized by material thinking.  Materialism is the #1 sin in our churches today.

11. Beloved, if there was ever a time to pray it is now!  (Cf. I Cor. 16:9). 

II. BECAUSE WE WANT GOD’S WILL TO BE DONE (ACTS 4:28)

1.     When our Lord taught His disciples how to pray, He said, “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

2.     First John 5: 14 says, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, he heareth us.”

3.     J. Vernon McGee said, “Prayer is not to persuade God to do something that He didn’t intend to do; prayer is to get you and me in line with the program of God.”

4.     The apostles were in line with God’s program.  They understood that God governs and overrules in the affairs of men.  They knew God’s program was going forward and they wanted to be part of it.

5.     G. Campbell Morgan said the apostles believed in the sovereignty of God, the wisdom of God, and the active government of God, and these convictions concerning God inspired their prayer.

6.     Note that when the apostles prayed they addressed Him by saying, “Lord, Thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that is in them” (4:24).

7.     In other words, they addressed God as the Creator of the universe.   This is a big battle today.  The Bible teaches that God created this world, and everything in this world, including man.

8.     But wicked men have invented strange theories, such as the theory of evolution.  They have rejected the plain teachings of the Word of God.

9.     The apostles also addressed God as the sovereign Ruler of the universe, who determines what happens in this world (4:27, 28).

10. In 1812, when Napoleon was getting ready to invade Russia he asked for an opinion from his commanding officer.  The commanding officer wisely remarked, “Man proposes, but God disposes.”

11. Napoleon was not happy with that answer and said, “I propose, and I dispose.”  But Napoleon’s pride led to his downfall. God sent a heavy snowstorm and brought the proud general to his knees.  Hindered by the snow and the cold Russian weather, Napoleon was forced to retreat.  His army of 600,000 was decimated, and less than 100,000 of his soldiers made it back to France.

12. Man thinks he is in control, but it is God that is in control (Acts 4:28; cf. 2:23; 3:18).

13. Calvary was all foreknown and foretold.  The clearest pictures of the cross are not found in the pages of the four Gospels, they are found in the pages of OT prophecy, such as Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53.

14. Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  John Phillips wrote, “God turned that horrible scaffold upon which men murdered their Maker into a stage upon which He demonstrated the wonder of His saving grace.”

III. BECAUSE PRAYER MOVES THE HAND OF GOD (4:30, 31).

1.     The disciples asked the Lord for “boldness” (4:29) and God answered their prayer (4:31).

2.     Notice that the apostles did not ask God to stop the “threatenings.”  They merely prayed, “And, now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto Thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word” (4:29).

3.     And yet it was their boldness which got them into trouble with the religious leaders in the first place. So when you think about it, they were asking the Lord for a continuance of adversity if that’s what it took to get the Gospel out.

4.     God gave them boldness.  Many more souls were saved (cf. 5:14).  And then came another wave of persecution (5:17, 18).

5.     This persecution of the apostolic church was by the Sadducees (5:17; cf. 4:1).   The Pharisees were the religious leaders behind the crucifixion of our Lord.  Later on it was the Roman government that persecuted the church.  Later on it was the church of Rome that launched the horrible Inquisition. 

6.     Then later on the Communists persecuted the Christians (and they still are in North Korea and China).  Today the biggest threat to the church (and to Israel) is radical Islam.

12. Adversaries come and go but God is still in control.  And prayer moves the hand of God. Alfred Tennyson wrote: “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”

CONCLUSION:

1.     There are many references to prayer in the book of Acts (cf. 1:14; 2:42; 3:1), but this prayer in Acts 4:24ff is the first recorded prayer in the book of Acts.

2.     We see here that the Holy Spirit brought the Word of God (Psalm 2) to the minds of the apostles as they prayed.

3.     Nowhere in the OT does it say that David was the human author of the second Psalm.  But here the Holy Spirit has revealed to us that it was David (Acts 4:25).

4.     When the Lord’s adversaries – Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Roman government, and the people of Israel (Acts 4:27) gathered together to crucify the Lord Jesus Christ, they were only partially fulfilling the prophecy of the second Psalm.

5.     This Messianic Psalm will be completely and totally fulfilled when all of the Lord’s adversaries gather together to oppose Him at His second coming (Psalm 2:1-12).   The book of Revelation calls this the battle of Armageddon.

6.     The world opposed Christ at His first coming, and they will oppose Him at His second coming.  And now during this interval between the first and second coming, our job is to tell men and women, boys and girls, that Jesus Christ is their only hope.

7.     Before we conclude let me stress that the Bible teaches there is only one baptism of the Holy Spirit and that took place on the Day of Pentecost.

8.     But there are many fillings (Acts 4:31).  We are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit. “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18).