+INJ Epiphany 3C   January 24th & 25th

Acts 4:23-31 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’ Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

Trust God’s Power for Proclamation!

Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Hard to imagine a more bold, clear proclamation of the truth. Picture Jesus in the synagogue in Nazareth. You hear the one talking here in Isaiah’s prophecy, about being anointed with the Holy Spirit as God’s Chosen Servant, with the power to preach good news and restore sight and free captives – that’s me. We don’t hear the response from the hometown crowd until next week’s Gospel, how they rejected him and tried to throw him off a cliff. But Jesus knew what was coming. And he said what he said anyway. Talk about powerful proclamation. Epiphany is about the word going out, Christ’s glory being revealed. But the more Christ revealed who he was, the more opposition there was. And as the message of Christ continues to go out today, many people reject it and oppose it. Every day, it seems, there is a new enemy to the truth popping up either inside the visible church or from the outside world. And that can get to us, as we go about the work of spreading Christ’s word. Have you ever pulled back from talking about Jesus because you weren’t sure how it would be received or how you would be treated? Have you ever softened or down-played a Biblical teaching because you knew it would get you in hot water? Have you ever thought about what you would do if you were threatened with physical harm for talking about Christ? Our text this morning equips us to talk to people about Jesus, even if the message is rejected. It’s wonderful to know that when we stand up to proclaim God’s truth, we’re not alone. We can trust God’s power for proclamation.

Peter and John were tremendous examples of trusting God’s power for proclamation. They had just healed the lame man at the Gate called Beautiful, and faced a crowd of amazed onlookers. So they explained: Acts 3:12-16 …“Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?... It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see. Powerful preaching. And it drew opposition from the Jewish powers-that-be. Peter and John were thrown in jail. They were interrogated. They were warned. They were commanded to stop. And then they were threatened some more. Then they were released.

Their response to all this is where our text begins. They didn’t breathe a sigh of relief and agree never to go back to the temple. They didn’t shake hands and say, well, it was a good run, but now it’s over. They returned to the place where the disciples met together and prayed.

“Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. Their prayer reflected the words of Psalm 146, and it highlighted God’s power. God had the power to create the heaven and the earth and the sea and all things. He certainly also has the power to help them proclaim his love in the face of opposition. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’ They were quoting from Psalm 2, one of King David’s psalms. Yet it was really God the Holy Spirit’s words coming through David’s mouth. It was God speaking. God spoke about his Anointed One. At the time the psalm was written, that was David himself. In the face of opposition and rebellion. David proclaimed his trust that the Lord would defend and support him as his chosen king. But ultimately, the Lord would anoint his true King in the Jordan River and install him on his heavenly throne when he ascended into heaven.

And the disciples matched up the prophecy with the fulfillment in their day. Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. “Sure, enough, Lord, just as you said. They conspired and plotted and schemed against your chosen servant Jesus. It all happened exactly as you said it would happen. And in fact, it was your power that made it happen.” They didn’t mean that God forced Herod and Pontius Pilate to do what they did – that was their own sinful choice. But when God laid out his grand plan of salvation, he included the wicked schemes of Christ’s enemies, and used them in his plan.  

Using the reasoning of faith, the disciples trusted that if God had the power to turn the plans of the wicked for the world’s eternal good, he also had power to help in this present opposition that they were facing from the Jewish establishment. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”  They prayed for two things here: the first was the power to preach boldly. The Greek word for “boldly” here means freely, without hesitation or reservation. They didn’t want threats and persecution to get in the way of the gospel; they didn’t want to dial back their preaching, or hesitate because they were afraid of what might happen to them. And they knew that only God could give enable them to that. So they asked God for the power to proclaim Christ.

The second thing they prayed for was for God’s power to perform miracles. This wasn’t new. Peter and John had just performed a miracle at the temple. It was God’s power that confirmed their preaching with a miraculous sign. That’s what had stirred everything up. The Jews could accept miracles. But that miracles should happen through the name of Jesus stuck in their craw. And when the name of Jesus was proclaimed with miracles, then they could not refute the apostles’ teaching, or dispute their claims about Christ. “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it.” All they could do was threaten; they could not stop the power of God’s Word.

As they prayed, the disciples got their answer. After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. God answered their prayer and provided them with power for proclamation.

Today, in 2010, we don’t do miracles anymore. We don’t have the extraordinary operation of the Holy Spirit in outward signs and wonders. We don’t have Jewish authorities breathing down our necks. But as Christ and his word continue to be proclaimed, there will continue to be opposition. Maybe it’s the outward violent kind when a Hmong pastor we’re working with is threatened and killed when he returns to his homeland in Southeast Asia. Maybe it’s the more subtle kind of opposition where the media and the general spiritual climate of our society opposes the Lord and his Anointed One. Maybe it’s the kind of opposition that is selective: Jesus is fine, but his more difficult and inconvenient teachings are opposed when we try to share them with people.

So what is our response to opposition? Do we respond with prayer, asking God to help us? Do we respond by trusting in God’s power, no matter what the circumstances? Or are there times that we respond with our own power, by thinking that if we speak well enough, or forcefully enough, or persuasively enough, or kindly or gently enough, people will listen? Maybe if I just come up with the right argument, or the right approach, or the right archaeological evidence, people will be convinced. Are there times when we’ve responded by pulling back and giving in, because we’re afraid of the consequences? Are there times when we throw up our hands, and conclude that the cards are stacked against us, and people in this day and age just don’t accept the Bible like they used to? When we respond to opposition like that, we’re giving the opposition more credit than it deserves, and failing to give God the credit he deserves. When we fail to trust God as we speak his Word, we’re guilty of cheating God of the glory he deserves, acting as if God has no power, as if his Word has no power. That means of depriving him of n a subtle way, we’re actually guilty of contributing to the opposition by giving in to it. We need to repent of that, and, repenting, we can find forgiveness in Jesus.

We can find forgiveness in Jesus, because he was and is the Lord’s Anointed One, regardless of how his enemies tried to oppose him. He was and is the Lord’ Anointed One, the Christ, God’s specially chosen Savior of the world. Jesus the Christ lived as God’s holy servant, perfectly trusting God’s power in our place, and never backed down from the truth, even when his life was as stake. Herod and Pontius Pilate conspired to kill Jesus, and succeeded. And yet Jesus willingly gave his life for ours, because his death was brought about by God’s gracious hand and by God’s gracious will. God gave his Son to die as our substitute.

But God’s hand raised his Son from the dead, also. That’s power! When we remember the power God has over our sin and over death, we remember that he gives us power to proclaim him, too. Since Jesus conquered death for us, we know that he will help us face opposition to his Word. Remember Psalm 2: Christ’s enemies conspire and plot in vain – it’s not going to work. God turned those wicked schemes to serve his saving purpose. God in his amazing love for us and for all the world, used even the evil schemes of the wicked to justify the wicked, sinners like us. He used all the opposition his Son faced to reconcile to himself the whole world of sinners who opposed him by nature, including us. He used the preaching of the Word, despite all opposition, to reach our hearts, and by his power, turn us to saving faith. He will also give us the power to proclaim his saving love boldly, no matter what the price.

We don’t look for the Spirit’s miraculous work to be so obvious in our day. We don’t expect God to answer our prayers by shaking our church or our home. But God’s promises still count for us: he promised that he would send his Anointed One, and he did; he promised that opposition would come, and it did; he promised that Christ and his Word would prevail, and they always do; he promised that he would hear and answer our prayers to give what we need to preach his love, and he will. When we have chances to open our mouths to speak about Jesus, we’re not alone. We can trust God’s power for proclamation. Amen.