Acts 4:23-31
23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 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, 25 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? 26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—
27 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, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 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.
Reflection
Strange as it may seem, God’s total control over the universe, even in predetermining the crucifixion (Acts 4:24, 27–28), does not prevent prayer but rather encourages it (vv. 29–30). Since Jesus reigns supreme, he is the One to approach with our needs.
Here we see a prayer that God loves to answer: the prayer for boldness to speak his word. In light of the threats from the Jewish leadership, it would be understandable for the believers to pray for relief from persecution. Instead they ask for renewed courage to proclaim the Word of God.
The believers can be bold because they know that the effects of evil are fleeting, and those who oppose the gospel are no threat to God, who is always in control. What others intend for evil, he will work for good (see Gen. 50:20). The ultimate example of this was the crucifixion of Jesus, which seemed like the final triumph of evil over good but was in fact the very plan of God to rescue the world (Acts 4:27–28). Not even those who decide matters of life and death pose a true threat, for we know the One who has defeated death.
2 Peter 2:10b-22
10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
Reflection
This is a difficult passage because it appears to imply that those who have been saved can fall away. But the careful reader will note that, as in Hebrews 6:4–9, these people have never actually been freed from their enslavement to corruption (2 Pet. 2:19). Earlier Peter has called them “creatures of instinct,” born “to be destroyed,” speaking about things of which they are actually “ignorant” (v. 12). Rather than being transformed by the power of the gospel as Peter described earlier (1:16–21), they have given the appearance of being a part of the church but have actually rejected the holy commandment (2:21). This becomes evident when they return to their former sinful ways.
Evidently, then, those who ultimately “fall away” have never truly responded to the gospel and become slaves of Christ (vv. 19–20; cf. 1 John 2:19). Their “knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” is superficial; they were never truly freed from the entanglements of the world (2 Pet. 2:20). The gospel, when fully and truly grasped by a humbled heart, is a mighty force. It is “the power of God for salvation” (Rom. 1:16). Those who truly receive it are born again (1 Pet. 1:3, 23), and this supernatural change can never be reversed. Those who fall away, especially after they have lived in the ways of the Christian community for a time, show that they were never truly in Christ. More than this, they are actually more susceptible to the seductions of sin and more hardened to the appeal of the gospel because they think they have already tasted it and have found it lacking (2 Pet. 2:20–21).
Psalm 138:8
8 The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.
God’s total control over the universe should encourage us to pray big prayers. Ask him to do things that only God can do, knowing that his power and purposes are invincible.