You can tell a lot about a person when you listen to them pray. What do they believe about God? Do they believe God will hear their prayers? Do they really trust God to know what is best? Join Pastor Jim for this study of Acts 4:23-37 and find out how the leaders of the early church prayed and how God responded to their prayers.
Sermon Notes
1. The early church shared 3 perspectives on God.
- (v. 23-28) The Sovereign Lord of creation
- (v.24) The Sovereign Lord of revelation
- (v.25) The Sovereign Lord of history (v. 26-28)
“No word has been used to reach absolutely opposite concepts as much as the word ‘god’. There is much ‘spirituality’ about us today that would relate itself to the word god or to the idea god; but this is not what we are talking about. Biblical truth and spirituality is not a relationship to the word god, or to the idea god. It is a relationship to the one who is there, which is an entirely different concept.”
Francis A. Schaeffer
The God Who is There
2. The early church made 3 requests of God (v. 29-30)
- Divine Providence
- Divine Purpose
- Divine Power
3. The early church displayed 3 characteristics of a healthy church. (v. 32-37)
- Filled with the power of the Holy Spirit
- Bold witnesses of the word of God & the resurrection of Jesus
- United under an abundance of God’s grace
“Every day the church here feeds 3000 people. Besides this, the church daily helps provide food and clothes for prisoners, the hospitalized, pilgrims, cripples, churchmen, and others. If only ten [other groups of] people were willing to do this, there wouldn’t be a single poor man left in town.”
St. John Chrysostom
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Christians follow someone who sacrificed everything to redeem and renew the world. At the heart of the Christian faith is a man who died a victim of injustice and who called for the forgiveness of his enemies.”
Tim Keller
The Reason for God