Sermon Notes from September 24

Sermon Notes:  Acts 4:23-31.

The word that is translated as church in virtually all of our English translations is the Greek word ekklesia.  It’s a word that means something like an assembly, a gathering, or a congregation. 

I point this out to remind you that in the pages of the NT, the picture that’s always behind this word "church" is the picture of a group of people gathered around one simple idea (or one single person: Jesus).

In history, time and time again, this has been forgotten, and in the same way, it’s possible for us to forget this too.  It’s possible for a church to morph into something that in almost no way resembles the biblical concept of church (or for Christians to morph into people that in almost no way resemble the biblical concept of Christians), and because this is possible, there’s value in us regularly going back to the pages of Scripture and asking questions like, "What does God want our church to look like?" or  "What does God want our Christian lives to look like?" 

That’s one of the things we’re trying to accomplish in this series in the first half of the book of Acts. 

So, how does Acts 4:23-31 speak to these questions?  Today, I want to point out 2 things I think we see here. 

1. The Church serves God in both good times and bad times.

Circumstances change for the church in Acts 4.  Things begin to get difficult for the Christians in Jerusalem (see Acts 3:1-4:22), but when times get hard, these Christians move toward God, not away from God. 

Times get hard, and these Christians pray.  Notice what they don’t ask for: a) They don’t pray for their circumstances to end.  b) They don’t pray for divine protection.  c) They don’t pray for vengeance on their oppressors.  Instead, they ask God to give them boldness to continue speaking of Jesus. 

The things they didn't pray for are not necessarily wrong (remember Jesus' words in the Lord's Prayer—give us today our daily bread, deliver us from evil), but if this happened to us, is this how we’d pray? 

Why did they pray this way?  They saw their wants and needs as secondary to God’s already expressed desire for His church to advance the kingdom through telling people about Jesus.  

Truth learned from this: As Christians, we’re to serve God—when times are good and when times are bad; both when it’s easy and when it’s hard.    

2. The church is comprised of people who have a personal relationship with God.

Notice that these Christians didn't simply talk to God like they’re reading from a list.  No, these Christians were answering God (language borrowed from Eugene Peterson’s Answering God).   

These Christians were afraid.  They wouldn’t have prayed for boldness otherwise, but they don’t just pray, “God, we’re scared, give us courage.”  No, they strategically go to God’s word and building upon His already spoken word they move toward believing what they most likely weren’t naturally inclined to believe. 

Truth learned from this: We can (and should) go to God with our needs, but when we pray, our primary focus should be on God.  Additionally, I think we’ll find that when we pray like this, our prayers will be a lot more effective.  

This is what C.S. Lewis was getting at in Mere Christianity when he wrote, “Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in': aim at Earth and you will get neither.” 

Conclusion:

Reference earthquakes in both the Old and New Testaments. 

How is it that we see Old Testament believers not able to handle this, but here, as this place was shaken, these Christians actually became more unshakable?

It’s because Jesus was shaken on their behalf—because Jesus their Redeemer died, they could now stand.    

Our desire is for Christ Central Church to be a church like this church.  Why?  Because this is the biblical standard for the church.  So, let's live as He’s called us to, because Jesus has saved us.