On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 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?
26 The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord
and against his anointed one.
27 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. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”31 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. Acts 4:23-31
I'm currently watching a show on Paramount called The Agency. It's a show about CIA operatives and this season they are trying to get ahead of a guy named Viking who is heading up a paramilitary group getting power in some region overseas. The problem is that this guy is a renowned chess player and just like chess, he is always many steps ahead of everyone in his plans. All of the governments moves against him were foreseen and even part of his plan.
In this passage, we see God, the master planner foiling all the plans of the devil. We see Herod and Pilate meeting together secretly planning what they would do to Jesus, not knowing that this was all part of God's plan. God's plan was to have His son die on a cross for our sins and they were unwittingly accomplishing God's plans. The believers even quoted David who said basically, "I don't get it - why do the nations keep raging against and plotting against God? Don't they know it's futile?" I just listened to Sean McDowell interviewing John Bevere who quoted some verses about the mysteries of God being hidden. Bevere said that God's plans are purposely hidden because if the devil knew them, he would change his plans. I don't know about that but I kind of like it. He said that the early believers would have prophecy meetings where they would get together and study prophecies and try to figure it out. He said that the Kumarans (SP?), the people that lived in caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, even figured out from Daniel 9 the day that the Messiah would come.
I love approaching the Bible this way, a book of buried treasure and mysteries just waiting to be mined by us. My wife shared a quote with me from a book she's reading. The quote was a question that read, "When you miss your quiet time, do you feel guilty or thirsty?" Isn't that great? Do you think in that room of believers where Peter and the others returned from their arrest said, "Well, I guess we better read the scriptures today because we've been commanded to by Jesus?" No! They opened the Psalms and started reading and when they got to Chapter 2, God spoke to them and said "Take courage! I told you ahead of time this would happen and all of this was foreseen and dealt with. Keep evangelizing and don't be scared." Then He shook the room and sent them out.
Lord, give us that Holy Spirit courage and boldness. Help us not to share apologetically but like one who has the cure for their disease or like one who won the lottery and wants to tell everyone and share the wealth. We have the good news that cures the bad news. Let's be vocal.
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