Daily Thoughts from Acts: How to Pray During Persecution (Acts 4:23-31)

When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “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 4:23-31 ESV)

After persecution there is nothing better than the company of believers.  Peter and John do not go off somewhere to lick their wounds.  They go back to the church.  The fellowship of believers is in this together.  Persecution of two members is persecution of the whole lot.  Jesus will later tell Paul on the road to Damascus, “Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4).  Jesus is one with his church and every member one with another.

Together the church goes to the Scriptures for understanding what is happening.  Someone is able to relate this to Psalm 2, a psalm that speaks of God’s anointed king’s rule and that reinforces that there will be opposition to his rule among the nations or Gentiles.  They rehearse the opposition Jesus received from the rulers of Israel, who are acting like Gentiles, like those who do not believe.  But they are also receiving opposition from ethnic Gentiles, Herod and Pilate, who more specifically fit the description.  They don’t reference, or at least it isn’t reported, the passage about the cornerstone being rejected, a prophecy of Israel’s resistance to Messiah.  But that is certainly being fulfilled.

Then they pray together in light of God’s teaching through Scripture.  But what is fascinating is that they do not ask God for protection from this predicted persecution, nor even strength to endure it, though there would be nothing wrong with asking those two things.  Rather, instead of praying for deliverance, they pray for boldness to continue speaking the gospel and performing miracles in Jesus’ name.  Such boldness only guarantees that more persecution will actually come their way.  If they went into hiding or at least quit preaching the gospel, they might see the persecution die down.  But that would not be faithful to Jesus’ mission.

God’s answer to their prayer comes in the form of a powerful expression of the Spirit’s power.  Just as Peter was filled with the Spirit earlier to give his defense, now the whole church is filled and each one begins to speak the word with boldness.  The goal is not for persecution to stop but for the courage to evangelize despite it.  This persecution is evidence that the gospel is at work among them and that it is being clearly understood by their opponents.  The gospel may always be expected to create division among those who hear it.  Paul says it is the fragrance of death to those who are perishing, but of life to those who are being saved (2 Corinthians 2:15,16).

David Aikman, former bureau chief for Time magazine in Beijing, China, chronicles, in his book Jesus in Beijing, the recent history of how Christianity has been transforming communist China.  Nearly every church pastor until recent times has been imprisoned and mistreated, but the fire of the gospel has not been put out.  Aikman notes that there has been a growing movement among Chinese Christians to make a concerted and unified effort to send missionaries to preach the gospel in Muslim countries and ultimately in Jerusalem, as well.  They feel they are the right ones to carry out this mission since they are already used to persecution.