Acts 4:23-31 – The Holy Spirit sends us out with an ancient message that can’t be stopped

When the going gets tough, we get quiet. When people get angry, we retreat. When our message is rejected, when the gospel is ignored, when the Church is accused and mocked and outright attacked, we withdraw to a safe distance, lick our wounds, count our losses, and try to adjust to a new culture that does not accept Christianity as it once did. We remember the good old days, when it seemed like most people were Christians, when we could pray like we wanted, where we wanted, where church seemed to be a normal part of life, not an embarrassing activity on the weekend. We wish we could go back, but there's no turning back time. So, we adjust to a new climate, tone down the delivery of our message, and try to get along. As the message of the world gets louder, the gospel gets softer. It's just the way it has to be, or so we think.

Until we hear Acts 4, that maybe things weren't always so good for Christians way back when, that maybe there's another way to respond to rejection and mockery and outright attack.

Our text this morning is the result of last weeks text. Remember what happened last week. Peter and John went to the temple to pray. The temple, the main headquarters of those who ordered the execution of Jesus. On the way, they saw a man, crippled from birth, and with the power of the resurrection, this man was healed. And remember the reaction of the crowd? They were amazed and wondered at this, but they didn't recognize where the healing came from.

So, Peter and John explain it to them. They explain that Jesus was the one who healed this man. But the people don’t want to hear about Jesus. They don’t want to hear that they put the world’s only hope to death. So the Jewish leaders arrest Peter and John and throw them in jail for a night. They’re not sure what to do with them. After all, they performed a miracle. How can you argue with that? So, they just tell Peter and John not to talk anymore about this Jesus, just keep that to yourself.

And what do Peter and John do? Do they quiet down? Do they back off? No, their response is in chapter 4:20:

The Jewish leaders don't have a clue as to how to deal with this, so with one more scolding, a few more threats, they let Peter and John go.

And Peter and John, verse 23:

Peter and John, after a night in jail, head back to home base, to the group of believers. And they tell the rest of them what had happened. Now, let’s picture this happening today. If one or two of us were arrested for talking about Jesus, or even if there was some conflict that came up, or even if we had just a bad experience in talking about Jesus with a friend or relative, and we came back here to talk about it, how would we respond? What would we do? Would our first instinct be to pull back, to not make as much noise? To regroup and tone things down?

This has happened in the church in the United States, but it didn’t happen at just one meeting. It’s happened slowly, over a long period of time, so slowly that we didn’t even see ourselves retreating. Just everyday, a little quieter, all little more withdrawn, a little fitting in, until it seems strange, it seems wrong to talk about Jesus, even with other Christians.

But when we go back, back to Acts 4, and see what the first Christians did in the face of opposition, they didn’t retreat, they didn’t fit in. They prayed. Verse 24:

First of all, let’s just be sure who we’re talking about. This isn’t the just the latest great idea for how to fix the world. This isn’t just someone who is really big now, but is going to be gone soon, replaced by the next big idea.

This is the Sovereign Lord, the creator of the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything that flies and everything that walks and everything that crawls and everything that swims. He’s the One who created "out there", so certainly we can talk about Him out there.

And the message that we speak, "out there" is a message that has been spoken for thousands and thousands of years. Listen in on the believers praying, in verse 25:

Not only did this Sovereign Lord create the world, but He spoke. He spoke through a human being, named David. And what the Holy Spirit spoke was this, verse 25, quoting Psalm 2:

And for people who have been raised with the Psalms, we know how the rest of Psalm 2 goes. Why do the nations rage and the people’s plot in vain?

They can plan all they want to fight the Lord, they don’t stand a chance. They can think all they want that they’re getting away with it, that they’ll do their own thing and God can’t do a thing about it. But all they’re plans, all their resistance just crumbles before the Sovereign Lord.

The message of Psalm 2 is that nothing evil can stand against the power of God. God purpose is to come into this suffering, broken, evil world, and begin to piece it back together, better than it was even when He created it in the first place. This is the message that the Holy Spirit brought to the world through a man named David. For David, it was the Philistines, the nations around them, that fought against the work of the Lord. But God wouldn’t be stopped, and the message went out from the Holy Spirit, through David.

Now, jump ahead about a 1000 years, and evil is still fighting against the Lord, with the same results. Verse 27:

Now it’s not the Philistines against the Lord in the time of David, now it’s Herod and Pontius Pilate against the Lord. And again, the Lord scoffs. Herod and Pilate had planned to take out Jesus, to get rid of Him by crucifying Him. Jesus was a trouble-maker, coming in and preaching that this new kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, had arrived.

But instead of getting rid of Jesus, instead of stopping all this talk about a kingdom of heaven, Herod and Pilate just played right into God’s hand. Their attack against the Lord went right according to plan, only it was God’s plan. Verse 28:

Once again, God’s work of redemption, His work of healing couldn’t be stopped. He WILL redeem this planet. He WILL save from sin. He WILL heal humans ravaged by a broken world.

And now we come to what happened to Peter and John just the day before, with their arrest and the threats from the Jewish leaders. And in the power of the Sovereign Lord, with the same message going out unstopped for thousands of years, now, verse 29:

They’re not holding back, they’re not getting quieter, they’re not trying to fit in. In the face of threats, in spite of hatred, they ask the Sovereign Lord to speak His message, through them, with great boldness. Lord, make sure they’re hearing our message. Make sure we’re not softening the words. Make sure that people are hearing about Jesus, who died and rose again, who puts lives to death and then raises them again.

Show, through us, the power of the resurrection. Verse 30:

Let us be living evidence of what You do through Your resurrection power. Let no one have any doubt of who You are, of who we follow.

And then, verse 31:

Just two chapters ago, the Holy Spirit had come on the believers, there in the upper room, on the day of Pentecost. And with the power of the Holy Spirit on that day, they spoke the message, THE message, in different languages, with a huge response, 3000 people coming to know Jesus that day.

Since that day, they had continued to bring that message, and it hadn’t been easy. Though people had been saved, disciples had been jailed. They still needed the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of Pentecost. And here in Acts 4, they receive the power again. The power of the Spirit is a continuing, constant flow, always carrying us, always giving us strength.

The Holy Spirit gave the message through David, and the message couldn’t be stopped. Jesus came, with the same message, and to fulfill this message, and Jesus couldn’t be stopped. The disciples went out to men crippled from birth, and to thousands of others, with the same message. And this message couldn’t be stopped.

And now, here we are. The same Holy Spirit that spoke to David is the same Holy Spirit that spoke through the disciples is the same Holy Spirit right here, right now, in this room, ready to shake us up. And the message of Psalm 2 is the message of Acts 4 is the message that is in our hearts, just wanting to be told to someone who needs to hear it.

It’s the message that only Jesus can save. Only Jesus can save a marriage, only Jesus can save your hopes, only Jesus can free from sin, only Jesus can point you in the right direction. It’s the message that calls us, all of us, to lay down our lives, every part of our lives, to die to ourselves, and to be raised up, every part of us raised up, to a life we never imagined we could live.

But, believe it or not, most people don’t want to hear this. Everyone is looking for answers to their problems, but nobody wants to hear the one and only answer. They’ll take answers from science and medicine, from Doctor Phil and Oprah, from what their friends tell them to do. They’ll look to the government for answers, and each and every time, the answers won’t be enough. They’ll give something, just not everything, and they’re left with even more questions than ever before.

And still, they won’t hear about THE answer, the Light of the world, the Way, the Truth, the Life. We speak the message, but they’re not listening. We don’t get thrown in jail today for bringing this message, like Peter and John. And we’re not crucified, like Jesus, for speaking the truth. Today, people just look at us as ignorant fools. They pity us for being so simple-minded. They patronize us and let us do our little thing, as long as it doesn’t get in their way. They condescend and pat us on our little heads for talking about something so quaint, so simple as Jesus. And honestly, it might actually be easier to know what to do with outright anger, clear cut criticism, open hostility. That might actually be better than being ignored and smirked at. We’re not sure how to respond, and until we do figure it out, we’ll just be quiet for a while.

But we don’t have to be quiet, because no one can stop this message. Neither hostility nor mockery nor treating us like children is going to stop. The Holy Spirit is carrying out this message that hasn’t been stopped in thousands of years, and isn’t going to be stopped now.

It would be nice to have some assurance of this. It would be great if, for example, this building started shaking. That would get us going. The building committee might be a little worried, but I don’t think so. We would be scrambling to bring this message out there, because we would know, we would know that the power of the Sovereign Lord, the creator of the heavens and earth and everything in them, was sending us out. We would love to have a sign like this.

The fact is, we get something better. Just like the disciples in Acts 4, we are also filled with the Holy Spirit, and that lasts. A shaken building is great, but the effect wears off after a while. We’re amazed, but then we need another miracle a while later to get us going again.

But the filling of the Holy Spirit is constant. He moves us in ways a shaken building would never be able to do. And with the Holy Spirit moving us, with a message that can’t be stopped, we keep talking, boldly, strongly, confidently. We go to our friends that struggle with drugs, that have a hard time controlling alcohol, and we show them, and we tell them that there’s a better answer, Jesus. We go to moms, on Mother’s Day, moms that are overwhelmed, moms that are worried about their children, and the world they’re growing up in. We come next to them and we assure them that greater is He that’s in us, then He that’s in the world. That Jesus is the way to make sure our kids will be okay. We close to our friends who so want to be moms and dads, who have been disappointed again and again. And we love them with the love of Jesus, and we make sure they know that the only way their hearts will heal is with Jesus.

And we will be mocked, and ridiculed, and ignored. We will lose friends. We might get a little lonely. But the message won’t be stopped. The Sovereign Lord will heal this world. The power, the power of the Holy Spirit, the power that came at Pentecost, and again in Acts 4, and again through us, now, the power that keeps us speaking the name of Jesus to anyone who will listen.