One in Heart and Mind

Acts 4:23-37

Welcome! Today we continue our journey through the book of Acts, looking at the second half of Chapter 4. The context of our account is that Peter and John were going up to the Temple and were met by a beggar who had been lame from birth, who on the ground, called out to them. Their eyes locked, with the beggar expecting to receive money. He did not receive money; he received something infinitely better than that. He received, through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the conduit of Peter, a miraculous healing that made him not only able to stand, but to walk, run, and leap. Even more important than this, it appears that this healing was a vehicle that led to the man having saving faith in Jesus, and ultimately, not only this man, but thousands of people who witnessed the miracle and then heard Peter’s message in the place near the Temple called Solomon’s Colonnade.  

Peter told them that they all shared in the responsibility for the death of Jesus, the Messiah, the Prophet foretold of in the Scriptures. Peter went on to explain that this too was foretold, that the Messiah would suffer and die. But God has raised Him from the dead. He called on them to repent and turn to God, so that their sins would be wiped out and that “times of refreshing” would come to them. The Greek words used there are forms of kairos and anapsyxis. Kairos refers to a special, extraordinary time or moment or event. Anapsyxis has as a literal meaning a recovery of breath, and it is used figuratively to describe cooling relief from extreme heat. Together, an appropriate translation of the two words together is revival. Now, revival in the modern meaning of the word that we use it today is not technically in the Bible, but I do think revival is an appropriate choice of phrase here.

In the great revivals of history, conversions are an essential, if not predominant feature of these times. But in these revivals, most of the people who put their faith in Christ already had knowledge of spiritual truths. They often may have prayed to God as little children. But for whatever reason, their faith did not mature, and they never got to the point of personally putting their trust in Christ for salvation. They would repent, turning from their former sinful ways and wrong beliefs that one could earn their own way into heaven, and then they would pray for God’s forgiveness through Christ. These experiences were often highly emotional (although that is by no means a requirement, as people’s encounters with God and their personalities can be quite different). In any case, people would often come away from these encounters describing themselves as having experienced a specific moment of conversion, a “Kairos moment”, if you will, and that they would find themselves changed, sensing God’s peace, God’s love, and new life – “anapsyxis”. I would argue that the parallels to what was happening in Acts were deep. These were Jews coming to faith in Christ, people who had indeed prayed to the same God, but who did not understand who Jesus was, or what He had done. Their experiences within the setting of religious Judaism made conversion more similar to what we think of as a revival than the conversion experience would be for, for example, a worshiper of idols, someone who had never before heard of God or Jesus.   

As we saw last week, what happened next is that the priests and other religious leaders did not like what they were hearing at all. They came with the captain of the temple guard and had Peter and John, and presumably the healed man as well, arrested and held overnight. The next day, they convened their entire corrupt court, the Sanhedrin, together, and demanded that they tell them by what power or name they did this. Peter responded that it was Jesus’ power, Jesus’ name, Jesus whom God had raised from the dead. The Sanhedrin were amazed by their boldness and eloquence. The healed man was with them, so it was impossible for them to say that they were making everything up. They commanded them not to teach or speak at all in Jesus’ name. Peter and John responded that with a choice of obeying them or Jesus, the choice was obvious – they should be able to judge the right response, the right thing to do, themselves. They said, “As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” In the Greek, the phrase “we cannot help speaking” includes the word “dynamai” from which we get the word “dynamite” and also “dynamic”. There is an idea here that they are compelled within their spirits so strongly to keep speaking about Jesus, that it is like the power of a dynamite explosion. When such an explosion goes off near to you, the percussive force is going to make you fly away from the blast. You don’t really have a choice in the matter. I believe that is what Peter and John are saying to the Sanhedrin.   

The passage says that the Sanhedrin threatened them further, but then they let them go. They saw the crowds praising God for what had happened. They could not risk doing anything to them because the crowds would turn against them. And apart from any possible threats to their own safety in that situation, they knew that inciting a riot would lead to them being removed from power by the Romans and probably killed. Doing anything to these men at this time would have made them risk everything, and they didn’t want to do that, as much as they hated what was going on. This brings us to today’s passage.   

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. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. – Acts 4:23-24a

There is no way to overstate how critical this moment was to the future of the church, the future of the gospel, the future of the Kingdom of God. Peter and John had maintained their boldness in the heat of the moment, during the confrontation with the Sanhedrin, but what about now? What about the other disciples? What about the other new believers? Would they turn fearful? Would they become cautious? If persecution continued, would they deny the Lord. I don’t say this to pick on Peter, but what about Peter? He had denied the Lord on the night of Jesus’ arrest.

Their response was an excellent response: They decided to pray. Now when trials happen to you, do you pray? Is it a first resort or a last resort? I am sure you have heard many messages about prayer, but do you do it? I want to turn to a verse you have heard many times before.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. – Philippians 4:6

Anxiety – let’s talk about anxiety. Even the secular world now recognizes that over the past few years of the Covid epidemic, anxiety has turned into an epidemic of its own. This is abundantly clear at the University. The number of students that struggle with anxiety is multiples higher than it was a few years go.

The Bible is clear that we should not be anxious. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:25) explicitly says “Do not be anxious about your life” and “Do not be anxious about tomorrow.” Or there Matthew 10:19, which I almost find humorous from the perspective of an anxious person: “When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say.” Wait! When they deliver me over? That I am sure makes many people so anxious that they don’t hear anything that came after that.

Now my view towards Philippians 4:6 is the following: It’s very hard to not be anxious. In general, it’s very hard to “not” do many things that you are already doing. Fortunately, this verse does not stop there. It gives us something to do: pray. So if I am anxious, and I pray, and I’m still anxious, what should I do? Pray again. Keep praying.

According to Philippians 4:6, what exceptions are there to this procedure? None. When is it OK to just stay anxious? Never. I don’t want to add to anyone’s anxiety, but remaining anxious because you don’t go to God is a form of disobedience.

Now, times may occur when you pray, and pray multiple times, but you are still anxious. Then pray that the Lord would take away your anxiety. Don’t try to do this in your own strength. After praying this, then trust in the Lord that He will help you with your anxiety. Do you think He would be opposed to this prayer? Of course not. Now, He may not remove it immediately, because He has a greater work, a greater healing, He wants to do in you. That is fine; it is even very good, if you have the right perspective on it. The Lord cares so much about you that He wants to heal you in ways that you don’t even understand. After praying this, if you feel anxious again, just tell yourself, “Self, I have put this in the Lord’s hands. Try to chill out, because He is working on it. He’s got this!”

Could there be times when medication might be appropriate? Sure. Our brains can get stuck in destructive patterns, and sometimes medication is an appropriate – but partial – pathway to healing. Whether you use medication or not, Philippians 4:6 (and all the other verses about prayer) apply to you.

Now there are three components to this procedure: Prayer, petition, and thanksgiving. The word translated as petition is the part where you tell the Lord what you are concerned about, what your needs are, the cause of your anxiety. But we are not to only do this. The first word for prayer is more general. I have long been a fan of the ACTS model (which ironic now that we are in Acts): Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication – and recommend you do them in that order. This model has been around for a few hundred years, at least, and is loosely based on the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6.

How do you do it? Adoration: You start by praising God. The more time you spend on this part, the better, in my opinion. Next is confession – in this case, you can confess your anxiety, your lack of trusting in God, whatever the Lord leads you to confess. Then thanksgiving: What are you thankful for – in this moment? Early on, I remember finding this the most difficult of the four parts. I need to think for a while before I find something. When it comes to anxiety, finding something to be thankful for is likely to reduce your anxiety in and of itself. I have some old standby’s: I am thankful that I am saved, a child of God, that Jesus loves me, that He delights in my prayers, that He cares about what I am going through, etc. But I try to be more specific if I can. Finally, last, is supplication – that is the part where you pray for God to fix the situation causing your anxiety, or, if that is not in His will, that He take away your anxiety over the situation.

I would be remiss if I did not present to you the verse that comes after Philippians 4:6, because it is extremely encouraging. Here the two verses are together:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:6-7  

Who doesn’t want that? So please, please, remember to pray when you are feeling anxious – about anything.

Now let’s return to our passage in Acts and look at their prayer.

“Sovereign Lord,” they said, “You made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 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? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against His anointed one.’” – Acts 4:24b-26

Now, I highly doubt that this was the only thing they prayed. I suspect they spent quite a while in prayer together. But this may have been an opening or summary prayer made by one of the apostles.  

Let’s look at this prayer in more detail. Even the first two words are powerful: Sovereign Lord. Sovereign means possessing supreme or ultimate power. God is sovereign. There is nothing He cannot do, nothing beyond His power. But there are many things He will not do. He will not sin. He will not give us things we ask for that aren’t good for us. And even if we ask for good things, He may not give them to us because He has a greater plan, one that blesses us and perhaps also others around us in a greater way if He doesn’t give what we ask. So He is sovereign and He is also Lord. He is our master. He is our king. We are His servants, His workmanship, His creation, and we were made to serve Him and give Him glory. The prayer furthers these thoughts by stating that He is the creator – He made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. Why does the prayer pray this? Is it to remind God of this? Is it to butter Him up, so He gives them what they want? I don’t think so. I think it is remind us. It is good for us to declare God’s works and His character. He knows who He is and what He has done, but we forget, or we remember but we don’t internalize it.

The quote from David is from Psalm 2. The entire psalm has messianic implications. Here is the psalm:

Why do the nations conspire [rage] and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.” The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath, saying, “I have installed My king on Zion, My holy mountain.” – Psalm 2:1-6

I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to Me, “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father. Ask Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; You will dash them to pieces like pottery.” Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and celebrate His rule with trembling. Kiss His Son, or He will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, for His wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. – Psalm 2:7-12

This Psalm has a partial fulfillment in the time of David, but it really looks forward to the end times. We know that a time will come when every knee will bow to Jesus, when every tongue will confess that He is Lord. A day will come when the persecutors will be stripped from power, will be stripped from everything. It won’t be like a big battle like you see in the superhero movies, where anyone might win. The Lord won’t even lift a finger. It is the ultimate folly to fight against the Lord.

Returning to the prayer of the Christ followers: After quoting from the first part of this Psalm, they tie it to their present day:

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. They did what Your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable Your servants to speak Your word with great boldness. Stretch out Your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.” – Acts 4:24b-30

What I find most remarkable in this prayer is what don’t ask for. They don’t ask God to strike down those opposing them. They don’t pray against Herod, or Pilate, or the conspiring Gentiles, or the Sanhedrin, or the priests, or the teachers of the Law, or the Pharisees, or the Sadducees. They don’t even pray that they would not be persecuted. They pray a prayer where the details are left up to God – they are fine with whatever God does in this situation, as long as they are able to share the gospel. They pray for boldness, not just boldness, but great boldness, total boldness. And they pray for miracles – not for their own situation, not to strengthen their faith, but for unbelievers. They pray that their bold speech might continue to be accompanied by God’s power, so that more and more people repent and believe.  

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 4:31

When I think about God shaking the meeting place, I am reminded of the end of Hebrews 12, where God says shaking implies the removal of things which can be shaken, that is, created things, and that what remains is that which cannot be shaken. In that shaking I can imagine their fear and their anxiety being ripped away. Filled with the Spirit, a person has no room for fear and anxiety. And note that God answered their prayer immediately: Already they are speaking the word of God boldly.

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet. – Acts 4:32-37

Like the description of the believers at the end of Acts 2, this is a beautiful picture of life among fully devoted followers of Christ.

Now, what does it mean that they were one in heart and mind? Does it mean they were like cultic clones of one another? Dressing the same, speaking the same, doing the same things? No. In fact, we know from earlier in Acts that they didn’t even have the same primary language. They had different preferences, different skills, different gifts, different professions, different possessions. But they had unity in the Lord. They believed that Christ died and rose again. They believed that salvation was found in Him through repentance and belief in Him. They were coming to learn and follow all that Christ had taught the disciples, as the disciples were passing these things along to them. They loved the Lord, and they liked to spend time worshipping Him and remembering Him with the bread and the cup. They believed in baptism for new believers.

And, they loved one another. You could say that they put the Lord first, one another second, and their possessions a distant third. As this passage explains, they lived and loved each other like family. I am reminded of when Jesus told the disciples during the Last Supper:

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another. – John 13:34-35

This is exactly what was happening. Radical love and support for one another. No disputes to settle. What a total contrast to Exodus, where Moses was getting worn out dealing with all the disputes that occurred among the Israelites.

We don’t know what teachings they had from the disciples about unity, but I suspect it, at least at first, was a “natural” experience. Perhaps put more properly, it was a supernatural experience. These were new believers, Spirit-led, Spirit-filled, and they likely evaluated everything in light of their relationship with Christ. They no longer lived for themselves; they lived for Christ. They were Jesus’ servants, Jesus’ workers in the world. Their only goal was to please their wonderful Master. And surely, the Master wanted them to live in harmony with one another, and knowing that was enough.

Over time, I believe, like us, they had to learn to conform to a position of remaining in love and unity. I think of Paul’s instruction in Ephesians 4:2: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” It is much harder to remain in love and unity when others are not doing so. Being patient, bearing with one another, these are not things you need to do if everyone is perfect. These are things you need to do when people have flaws, when they act selfishly or rudely.

Just as there is a “honeymoon” stage in a new marriage, where you are blind to one another’s flaws and weaknesses, but over time, as the saying goes, the honeymoon is over, and then you need to work together on your relationship with one another, I believe the same is true in our relationship with other believers. In both kinds of relationships, we need to learn to die to self, and that is not easy. Like all true spiritual growth, it requires dependence on the Lord, and it requires prayer.

Let’s look at other aspects of this passage. “With great power the apostles continued to testify about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” The gospel continued to be preached. They ignored the warning of the Sanhedrin. Undoubtedly, many more were repenting and coming into the community of faith.

Now let’s talk about their free giving of possessions and their providing for the needy. This is a beautiful work of God – as it says, this was the work of God’s grace. Generosity is one of the hallmarks of a mature believer. I can give you two stories – one from about 32 years ago, and one from about 10.

In 1990, after being a believer for only a year or two, I became a volunteer for the Urbana ’90 Missions Conference in Urbana, IL. This was a huge missions conference that only took place every few years, and there could be 5000 or even 10,000 attendants. People from many local churches volunteered to help make the event take place. Volunteers who put in enough hours could attend portions of the conference without cost. I was one of them. I volunteered with unloading semis full of books and other materials in a long human chain – and I have another story from that experience, but today I want to focus on my other experience: I served as one of the people directing parking on the opening day.

Well, as it turned out, that day was a day with snow! The snow made travel difficult, and there were long lines of cars lined up to get into the parking lots. You might have thought that people grew impatient, pressing their horns, or otherwise becoming angry, but the opposite took place, at least in terms of what I was able to observe at my location. I was cold, wet, and tired. But people were amazingly kind and friendly. People would roll down their windows and say the kindest things to me, and even pray for me. One lady gave me her hot chocolate! It was an absolute blessing to serve these people on that snowy day, and people’s kindness and generosity reminded me of what we read in Acts 4.

The second story was when I went to speak at a LINC gathering in Atlanta. LINC (leaders impacting nations for Christ) is a summer program for college students with our sister churches where students live together and do lots of outreach, sharing the gospel. I spoke at an evening meeting, but during the day I went out with the group to share on the Georgia Tech campus. We took a break over lunch, and we went to the cafeteria. As I was going to the line, a total stranger came up to me, introduced himself, and told me that he had been watching me sharing the gospel and was very thankful that we were there to do this. He then handed me his credit card and told me to buy whatever I wanted for lunch! He insisted, and told me where he was sitting, so I could bring the card to him after I paid. Again, I had major Acts 4 vibes. I and the person I was sharing with had lunch with him and his friends, and they also prayed for us before they left. I will never forget these experiences.

One more experience I have seen a video about involves the recent events at Asbury University. A young man asked for prayer because he needed a job. People prayed for him, but then a man from the balcony shouted out something like “Here, take this!” and he threw his largest denomination bill towards the stage. The next thing that happened, people from all over were throwing money at this guy; one guy even emptied his wallet and wad of bills came out. Then everyone broke into applause and praise. The man was overwhelmed.

Now, in the case of our Acts situation, the behavior was even more impressive than this: people were selling their properties and taking the entire proceeds to the community of believers. With some similarities to Asbury, they placed their money at the feet of the apostles. One of the people who did this is singled out: Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, who also goes by the name of Barnabas. We will see a lot more of Barnabas later in Acts.

Note that by putting the money at the apostles’ feet, the gifts are unrestricted. The leaders are trusted with the money to put it to whatever needs they choose. Now this money was not used outside the community of believers, from what we can see. Indeed, there were many real needs within the community. Recall that this “revival” or whatever you want to call it began on a holiday when many people were in Jerusalem from places far away. It appears that many of them stayed after coming to faith in Christ. But they had no employment, no way to pay for living arrangements, food, and so on. So there were real needs if they were to stay and continue to grow under the apostle’s teachings. Undoubtedly there were also other poor people joining the believers, including people with injuries or ailments that prevented them from working, people who were very elderly, people who were widows, and people who were orphans. These funds were used to support any and all valid needs within the ever-growing body of believers.  If the apostles were basically teaching full-time, the funds may have also been used to support them with basic necessities since teaching meant that they too were unable to work.

In summary, we see an absolutely beautiful community of believers living in unity and love and generosity. Without doubt, this community was so unlike the ways of the world that it in itself drew even more people in, so that they too could hear the gospel and give their lives to Christ.

As a final comment, I pray and ask the Lord to guide us into each new series. Between the recent events at Asbury and the recent release of The Jesus Revolution movie, which is about the major revival that began among the hippies in California in the late 60s and early 70s, I am truly in awe of God’s timing and leading. God is so good. Let us pray that God’s timing in Acts would lead to more than just some parallel events to encourage us. Let us pray that it also be a sign of revival happening here in Clemson, and that God would use us as He sees fit to support this work. The phrase “Maranatha” means O Lord, come! Let us all say this together.