Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: CH Spurgeon said prayer is the breath of faith, and prayer meetings are the lungs of the church. If a church wants to be united, I think one of the keys is a praying church. The Bible doesn't say anything about being united around the worship department or music. It doesn't unite us around great events. We don't come to church to be entertained, but when you come together to pray, there's a natural result of unity.

Kurt: The religious leaders were furious with Peter and John in Acts chapter four for preaching the name of Jesus, and they forbade them to do so. Despite mounting persecution, the church gathered to pray for boldness and courage to continue declaring the truth and power of the gospel, including to those who opposed them. From today's word, Pastor Brett Meador illustrates the church's call to pray.

Brett Meador: Acts chapter four. Really, this chapter breaks into four sections. The first section is verses one through 14, and it's the apostles defending the name of Jesus Christ. Defending the name of Jesus is something you might say, as Christians, do we really need to defend? But if it is true, what Peter is saying, and it is, that there's no other name under heaven whereby men can be saved, then that's a name that we should be proclaiming. We should be proclaiming the name, and there are those who would disparage the name of Jesus. I think it's right for them to defend the name of Jesus. They're saying, by what name do you do this? By what authority? We have quite a clash of emotions here.

We've got a clash of the grieved religious leaders. They're grieved right here in verse two, being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. But the thing that's interesting about these guys is they know the truth, but they're not willing to acknowledge it. They are not willing to grab onto the truth. The key is to find the truth. What does the Bible say? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.

This is really where we're going to see these disciples. They're going to be pointing back to Jesus. There's no other name under heaven by which men can be saved, defending the name of Jesus. Then the rest of the chapter, I'll break it down quickly here. The second section is the council, the Sanhedrin, opposing the name of Jesus. That's verses 15 through 22. Then we're going to see the church calling on the name of Jesus, verses 23 through 30. The fourth part of the chapter is just a report of what happens after those first three things happened. Then there's kind of a final report in verses 31 through 37.

The first point is the apostles defending the name of Jesus Christ. I love how we're already seeing in this the boldness of the apostles. By the way, did you notice that Peter talked about Jesus? Not only did they crucify him, but he rose from the dead. Did you notice the Sanhedrin never denied that Jesus rose from the grave? You think they'd say, you've got to stop talking about this Jesus mumbo jumbo. He never really rose from the grave. But they didn't. Nowhere do these guys admit or try to persuade that Jesus did not rise from the dead.

You think they would have come up with something to deny that. That would be the end of Christianity if they could prove it, with a body or some evidence of tampering or the Romans or something, but none of them produced that. So they never said, don't say Jesus rose from the grave because he didn't and here's proof. They didn't say that. They just said, don't say Jesus rose from the grave. We see that when it says in verse 16, saying, what shall we do with these men? For a notable miracle is done in them. This is what they couldn't deny. That's the bottom line.

In verse 17, things get heated up here. It says, "But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus." So the debate kind of turns hostile. They start threatening, and they threaten them that they speak not in this name, the name of Jesus, and they called them and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

In verse 19, this is where it gets interesting. It says, "But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye." You can judge whether it's right for us to listen to God or listen to you. "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." Don't you love this? If you're afraid to speak the name of Jesus where you are, at your office or school, if you're one of those afraid, would you mark this verse in your Bible? Verse 20, mark it well: "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."

What did they see and hear? They saw Jesus, who was resurrected from the grave, and they knew that he was the Messiah. If you know that Jesus is the Messiah, we cannot but tell people what we've seen and heard. I love what Peter says here. It's very logical. Verse 21: "So when they had further threatened them," so they continued to threaten them more, "they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all men glorified God for that which was done. For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed."

This is interesting. They could have done anything that they wanted to, but they said the evidence is too great. We're not going to not talk about Jesus. Don't you love it? It's kind of like they had nothing they could do. What are they going to say? What are they going to do? The multitudes believe that the guy was crippled for 40 years. This is where we learn that this guy had been crippled from the womb for 40 years. You say that's a long time.

Didn't Jesus walk by this guy probably when he was in Jerusalem? Probably. But there was this timing and a plan that God had for this man, and 40 years was the mark. Have you ever wondered? So often I wonder, we wonder, Lord, why aren't you working in my life? I've been praying. I've been believing. Where are you, Lord? Have you ever felt that way where you're wishing the Lord would intervene or step in or help your problem? Maybe you've been waiting for 40 minutes. 40 minutes, maybe 40 days. Maybe 40 years. It's funny how the Bible has a lot of those 40s, doesn't it?

Moses waited for 40 years in the wilderness before he was ready to be used by the Lord to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. 40 years is a long time. For some of us, we wait for 40 minutes and we get all upset. Lord, what's going on in my life? But what I would say is take hold, trust the Lord, be patient, and don't give up. The Lord has a timing and he makes all things beautiful in his time. That's what you need to remember. It might be 40 years, but the key is to wait and trust and put your hope in the Lord.

I love that this guy, 40 years, that was the mark the Lord said: that's when I'm going to make this guy walk. He went walking and leaping and praising God. Now we're reading about some guy in Jerusalem that was crippled. This is an amazing story that will shake the whole world and shook them and was part of the explosion of the early church. God had a purpose for that guy, and it was going to be part of this helping Peter and John spread the gospel. Because he was healed, they couldn't say anything against Peter and John. That's a big role to play in the early church. This crippled guy makes a big splash by being the guy that keeps them sort of safe.

You never know what the Lord's going to do in your affliction. Peter's the one who talks about don't think it's strange when you face fiery trials and persecutions and troubles. This guy probably thought it's strange, why am I crippled for 40 years? Then all of a sudden, the Lord heals me. It was for a time just like this this guy was going to be healed and used. First, we see verses one through 14, the apostles defending the name of Jesus Christ. Second, the council opposing the name of Jesus Christ.

Thirdly, as we keep reading in verses 23 through 30, we see the church calling on the name of Jesus Christ. Let's pick it up in verse 23. Peter and John are let go, free. "And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them." Can you picture Peter and John going back to all the church friends? Hey you guys, you'll never believe what just happened. We were in big trouble and they couldn't say anything against the guy being healed, and they let us go. They told us not to say the name of Jesus anymore.

What do you do when you're the church and Peter and John show up saying, check out what just happened to us? Do you have a pizza party? Do you slap them a high five? Let's see what the church actually does in verse 24. "And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord," this is their prayer right here, "Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is."

The starting of their prayer, they're noting God's greatness. That's always a good way to start prayer. I know it's almost trite and trivial to say, the creator and sustainer of all things, the way old Uncle Bob used to pray at dinner time. But really, that's not a bad way to start, to remember who you're talking to. I think the early church, they sensed the gravity of the moment. They say, oh, Lord God, the creator. I love how they lift up their voice, and they're doing it all with one accord, the maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them.

Verse 25, they go on. "Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ." This is interesting. They're saying, let's pray. They all say, let's get to prayer. What's this all heathen rage thing? We'll talk about that in a second. But I love how the church goes right to prayer.

They sense the gravity of the moment. So what should we do? Getting in the Word is always a great response to anything because the Word is where it's at. I think prayer, this is what I see the church, maybe we could do better as a church, all of us, the greater church capital C, is to be praying but not just by yourself, but with one accord. That's what it says here. They all lifted up their voice to God with one accord. That's not a Honda. They lifted with all, they're like-mindedly praying and they're saying the same thing.

It says here that they said instead of let's celebrate Peter and John are free, they said let's pray. I think they sensed that they were let free, but they probably knew the gravity is more dangerous than that. There are a lot of things in the world. We as a church, rather than just saying, yeah, we're good to go, we should be on our knees before God praying right now. Just like we should pray for whoever's our president, for them to do well, to follow the Lord, to repent of sin, to pray blessing upon them. That's what the Bible tells us to do. First Timothy chapter two, verse one tells us: first of all, make supplication and prayers for those who are in authority over us.

CH Spurgeon said prayer is the breath of faith, and prayer meetings are the lungs of the church. I think that's a true thing. I'm so thankful for the prayer warriors we have at Athey Creek. We have people and even groups that get together and pray just for Sunday mornings and Saturday nights for Wednesday night Bible study. We have people that are prayer warriors and we need that. Spurgeon was right and he knew something about church life and church behavior. Because of prayer, they were united together. They lifted up their voice with one accord.

Did you know that that's what prayer does? I think that that's how the church can be united. We do unite around the scripture, that's a part of it, but there's something about prayer when you pray together. In Philippians chapter two, Paul says, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. How does that happen? How can you get a bunch of people in the church to start thinking in the same way, have the one accord, one mind? I think prayer is one of the secrets to that, is gathering in prayer.

There was a unity that happened. That's true with large groups, it's also true with small groups. Husbands and wives, do you pray together? I think that's one of the more intimate things a couple can do. You say, Brett, there's other things more intimate than that. Yeah, but did you know there's some interesting statistics about romance and physical touch and all that? Yeah, that helps a marriage. It helps.

But actually the statistics are alarming. You know the old saying, the couple that prays together stays together? That's actually even more strongly supported than the romance part of marriage. Did you know that? In fact, the study that was done, there was a Gallup study, found that the divorce rate for couples who regularly pray together is one in 1,152. So it's less than one percent. There's a shocking statistic that couples that pray together are way less likely to end in divorce. Most divorces are somewhere around 50 percent, 50/50 chance you'll make it.

But if you happen to be a couple that prays together, guess what? You're going to be more successful. I think that's because when you pray with someone, there's a like-mindedness that kicks in. It's hard to be mad at each other if you're a married wife and husband and you're praying together. If you have the wherewithal, some of you don't sadly, but when you get into that argument, if the first thing you say is, honey, and you just lovingly grab her hand and say, let's pray together.

Now, you shouldn't say, Lord, forgive her for being such a nagging wife. Don't do that. That's not going to help. That's not a right prayer. You won't get what you ask for because you're asking amiss, the Bible says that. But if you grab her hand and just start praying for help and for wisdom and that the Lord will help you sort through the challenge that's in front of you, it's hard to stay mad at someone when you're praying with them.

You know that argument I always talk about when you spend five bucks on a five-cent argument as a couple? It's when you pray you're like, oh, yeah, this is dumb. I can't believe I'm arguing about something so dumb. Something about prayer kind of exposes your stupidity. I hope you're careful on that one, prayerful on that one. All that to say, the prayer group, we need more prayer time. My favorite times are when our leadership gets together and pray. We get away for prayer retreats. We also prayer night for the elders. We get together right after Wednesday night and we're going to pray. There's a lot to pray about. But we need more and more of that.

If a church wants to be united, I think one of the keys is a praying church. Bible doesn't say anything about being united around the worship department or music. It doesn't unite us around great events and harvest festivals and concerts. We don't come to church to be entertained, but when you come together to pray, there's a natural result of unity.

So what are they saying? Well, this verse 25 gets kind of strange. It says, "Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage?" Now, this is a signal. What are they doing? They're praying the Bible. If you don't know what to pray, pray the Bible. That's always a good way to go. Have you ever thought, what am I going to say in a prayer time? If you're praying scripture, you're always on good, solid ground.

That's what they do. I love the model here for us, to just pray scripture. It's a scripture that they were familiar with. By the way, when you pray and you don't know what to say, sometimes you can say stupid things. If you're worried about that, then just stick back to praying scripture. What does the Bible tell how what do you well, Jesus taught us to pray. Most of you have it by memory: Our Father, who art in heaven. You can start right there. That's praying scripture right there. The Lord's Prayer.

Hallowed be thy name. If we start praying exactly the way Jesus taught us to pray, that's a really good beginning. But even just praying scripture, these guys seem to pull out arbitrarily a psalm from David. What psalm are they talking about? Psalm chapter two. Before we break this down, here in verse 25, verse 25 and 26, you'll notice your margin reference probably refers you to Psalm chapter two, verses one and two. You say it's not an exact quote, but it is pretty close. Let me show you. Go with me to Psalm chapter two.

While you're turning there, should the quoting of the Old Testament be verbatim? Are you in bad standing if you sort of paraphrase? I think you're in good standing, and I'll tell you why: because hopefully you're not twisting it. As long as you're not messing up the scripture and twisting it, be careful of that, of course. But Jesus sometimes used the Greek Septuagint when he quoted from the Old Testament. That's kind of an interesting thing because the Greek Septuagint doesn't always perfectly align with the Hebrew Old Testament.

But Jesus was quoting from the Septuagint. I love that when Jesus does that, he sort of gives you and me a little bit of license when it comes to the idea of translation and stuff like that. There are little differences, but as long as you're not twisting scripture, don't feel hugely pressured. That's this case here. The church is praying something that's not going to be word for word, but it's pretty close. Let's take a look. Psalm chapter two, verse one: "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying,"

Pause, those are the two verses particularly that they quote. What is this whole thing about the heathen raging? In the story, this is speaking about the heathen, the Gentile nations that are against the Lord. This is the Psalmist sort of marveling about these different groups or peoples. The first group is the Gentiles. He says, why do the heathen rage, and they go against his anointed? In verse two, they say his anointed is Christ. That's the way the early church interpreted that. They see Jesus Christ. This is a psalm of Jesus and they use the name of Jesus instead of just the anointed like here in the psalm.

This is the liberty they're taking to interpret that Psalm two is speaking about Jesus. Are you guys with me on that? That's important. Who's his anointed? Jesus. But then there's groups. Verses one through three speak of the Gentile nations, the heathen that are raging. Look at verse three: "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." In verse four, "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision." NIV says scoffs there.

"Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure." This is where the Psalmist is saying for the Gentiles that reject Jesus, the anointed, there's going to be judgment and wrath. When is that going to happen? Second coming of Christ. The next one that's talked about is Jesus himself, verses seven through nine. Let's keep reading. It says there in verse seven: "I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."

What will it look like when Jesus returns? Some of the Gentiles will be an inheritance. That's the church. But the ones that reject Christ will be beaten with the rod of iron. Speaking of Christ and his second coming is all right there. Then in verse 10, we see the Holy Spirit. It says, "Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him."

This is a good scripture for leaders of nations. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. That's what we need to be praying for our president, that he would serve the Lord with the fear of the Lord, a healthy fear of the Lord, and rejoice with trembling. It says, "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way." Believe in Jesus. Trust in Jesus. You say, okay Brett, this is a heavy scripture from the Psalmist. Why do the heathen rage? And the Lord's going to cut them down and it's going to be brutal. What does this have to do with the guys in the church?

They're remembering what their holy scriptures say about Christ in his second coming. This is where we have to realize that this is the context. They're recognizing the leadership in Jerusalem is rejecting the leadership of Christ and rejecting God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Back to the book of Acts. I love the context of that whole chapter. I wanted you to see a bit of that because it really does fit the predicament the disciples are in with the heathen, even though they're the religious leaders. It says that they had to basically apply this: why do the heathen rage?

Well, right now we kind of have this leadership today. As much as I hope Trump is a Christian, I don't know, I don't know the guy personally. I know he talks like he is sometimes. But who am I to judge that? God knows. But I do pray that he's a Christian and I do pray that he'll have the fear of the Lord that's talked about here. That's really what these guys are praying. Lord, why do the heathen rage? They're trying to pray for these guys that are about ready to martyr them or condemn them. I think that's what you and I should be doing is be like this church: praying for the leaders, for their repentance, for their following of the Lord. That's kind of what's going on here. It's a good model for us.

Kurt: Pastor Brett Meador pausing in our verse-by-verse look into Acts chapter four with this scriptural call from today's word to keep our leaders in prayer as demonstrated by the early church. I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment. If you've missed any portion of our time today, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. Our vision on Today's Word is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus through careful study of the Bible. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. I also want to mention that Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon. In addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, we also have locations in Hillsboro and McMinnville, Oregon. For more information, just go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link Locations. That's todayswordradio.com and click the link Locations.

Pastor Brett is with me now. Brett, I know your church Athey Creek in the Portland, Oregon area has seen tremendous growth over the years. Why is it so important to expand via this Today's Word Radio program to a lot more places around the United States?

Brett Meador: Well, Kurt, as grateful as we are for what the Lord's done at Athey Creek here in the Portland area, we've never really wanted to keep it just local if God was opening a bigger door. We really sense that that's what the Lord has done recently. One of the things that's marked our church from the beginning is just simple, consistent verse-by-verse teaching through the Bible, and we really know that people are hungry for that. So as we just do what the Lord's called us to do, expanding through Today's Word Radio wasn't really about growth for growth's sake, it was about stewardship, really, just using what the Lord's entrusted to us, teaching people the Word, helping people to grow, and radio really allows us to go beyond geography and reach into a broader sense everyone who wants to hear.

Kurt: Right. Helping more people grow through God's Word. Thank you, Pastor Brett. Well, if you'd like more information about this Today's Word Radio program or Pastor Brett Meador, just go to todayswordradio.com. Next time, Pastor Brett will share how the apostles Peter and John had the opportunity to preach the gospel and how it grieved the religious leaders of that day. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.