And now, Lord, look upon their threatenings, and give to thy bondmen with all boldness to speak thy word,
The rulers have just hauled Peter and John in, warned them to stop speaking in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Their friends' response is a prayer — and the striking thing is what they ask for, and what they refuse to ask for.
Their first response was not to fight back or lobby for better laws.
Notice verse 29. All they say about their enemies is, "look upon their threats." They bring the matter before God and leave it to Him. They do not try to get better laws, or anything of that kind. The Lord had said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting" (John 18:36).
Behind that restraint lies confidence that God is the one deciding how far opposition may go.
Their hearts were content that the Lord should look upon the threats of those who wanted to harm them. He knew best what to allow and what to hold back. And He could rescue them. For themselves they asked for grace to speak His word with all boldness or liberty.
What their prayer leaves out is remarkable.
Those gathered in prayer knew what kind of times they were living in, and they asked for what they needed. What was that? Shelter from persecution? Power to crush their enemies? No. They asked to speak the Word with all boldness, and for God to stretch out His hand — not to shield them, but to heal others.
No one asked for relief. One writer traces the reason to what they valued most:
They were marked too by far more concern for the honour of the Name of Jesus than for their own ease and comfort. They did not ask for persecution and opposition to stop. They asked for boldness in speaking the word, and for miraculous support that would exalt His Name.
Prayers in the Psalms do call on God to deal with the wicked. This prayer does not.
So praying saints today do not ask God to take vengeance on their enemies, as we find in the Old Testament, and above all in the Psalms, which show the deepest feelings of the godly people concerned... Many dare to think, in ignorant presumption, that these prayers against the wicked — as in Psalms 6, 10, 54, 59, 83, and the like — are vindictive. They are not. They are judicial, meant for the time when God's instruments are in place to pour out His wrath on all who despise Him. But now it is the day of grace and salvation, the accepted time.
The second petition turns inward.
Their second petition is for boldness. They cry to be moved themselves; and that has its application to some of us. We may pray for others to be moved, but how are we moved ourselves? To act with power on those around us, we need to be right ourselves. What a short prayer! Only four petitions! Yet they were "of one accord," and in earnest, waiting for the answer.
Kelly points to the opposite danger:
It is easy for Christians to sit over the word rather than let the word rule them, admiring the things they know, and criticising those who do not know the wonderful counsels and ways of grace.
God answered on the spot.
That memorable day in Jerusalem ended with a remarkable prayer meeting (Acts 4:23-31). When they were let go, Peter and John went back to their own people. They reported everything that had passed between them and the chief priests and elders. The assembly at once turned to God with one accord. When they had prayed, God gave open proof of His presence among them: He shook the place where they had gathered. "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness."
- Threats — they hand the danger to God instead of fighting it, and say no more about their enemies than "look upon their threats."
- Ask — not for shelter, not for the crushing of enemies, but for courage to keep speaking. God stretches out His hand to heal others, not to shield them.
- Grace — no call for vengeance. This is the day of grace and salvation, not the judicial hour of the Psalms.
- Themselves — they ask God to move the praying company, not the opposition. To act with power on others, we must be right ourselves.
- Answer — God shook the place, filled them all with the Holy Spirit, and sent them on speaking His word with boldness.
in that thou stretchest out thy hand to heal, and that signs and wonders take place through the name of thy holy servant Jesus.
The council has just ordered the believers to stop speaking in the name of Jesus. Their prayer does not ask for safety. It asks God to act for other people, through the name of His holy servant.
Notice where the power they ask for is aimed. They ask God to stretch out His hand, but not over themselves.
Those gathered in prayer saw what kind of times they were in. They asked for what they needed. What was that? Shelter from persecution? Power to crush their enemies? No. They asked to speak the Word with all boldness. They asked God to stretch out His hand — not to shield them, but to heal others — and to do signs and wonders in the name of His holy servant Jesus. Their earnestness must impress us. They knew how serious their position was, yet the threats did not dismay them, nor did the power that might be called out against them.
What they asked for shows what they wanted for their enemies.
Their first request laid before Him was the testimony, the word of God. They wanted mercy and blessing for their enemies, not revenge. The proofs of power they asked from His hand were not fire from above, or the earth opening to swallow the enemy. They asked for "healing". And if "signs and wonders", they asked for them "through the name of His holy Servant Jesus". They asked this way because their hearts were set on the honour of the Son, just as they honoured the Father.
Older English Bibles put "child" here. Later revisers made a different choice.
In Acts 3:18, 26, as in Acts 4:27, 30, the Revisers are right to give "servant," not Son or Child. The word refers back to Isaiah 42:1; Matthew 12:18; Isaiah 52:13; Isaiah 53:11.
The title says how Jesus lived, not only who He is.
There was nothing of independence seen in God's Servant; He was in everything obedient to God, and all that He did was by the Holy Spirit with which He was anointed.
These opening chapters of Acts keep calling Jesus God's servant. Not every preacher after them started there.
Notice the emphasis in these early chapters, that Jesus is the servant of God, the Messiah. Paul, as soon as he was converted, preached Him as the Son of God (Acts 9:20). He had seen Him in heaven: they had known Him in His blessed path of service on earth.
The healing they asked for did more than relieve sickness. It had an audience.
Their faith, according to the word of the Lord (Mark 16:17-18), counted on more than spiritual blessing. They asked for the sick and the disabled to be healed in His name, as a precious and meaningful sign to unbelievers. The Master had worked this way when He was here. His servants would do the same, as a witness to His gracious power. He was now risen and in heaven, and He had defeated Satan. The Lord worked with them and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.
Do such signs continue? Commentators read the promise as real but not permanent.
The more you weigh the matter, the more fitting it seems. He who granted miracles at the beginning did not tie them to the church or to His servants as a permanent inheritance. He promised that they would follow "those that believe"; and so they did. He never said they would follow forever, or in every case.
They asked for one thing. God gave more.
When they had prayed, the place shook. Better still, "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit." They had not asked for that. They had asked for boldness, and they got it.
- Threat — The council warned them. They took the threat straight to God, and never asked Him for protection.
- Request — They asked God to stretch out His hand toward others: healing, not shelter. Mercy for enemies, not fire from heaven.
- Name — They asked for that power through "His holy Servant Jesus". Older Bibles read "child"; the better word is Servant, the One Isaiah spoke of.
- Purpose — The signs confirmed the word in front of unbelievers. Writers say they were never promised as permanent.
- Answer — They asked for boldness. They got it, and more: the place shook, and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.
And when they had prayed, the place in which they were assembled shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with boldness.
Peter and John are free again, under orders never to speak in the name of Jesus again, so the believers pray together. The answer comes at once, and it raises two questions: what had they prayed for, and what does "filled" mean here?
Their prayer left out the requests we might expect:
Those gathered together in prayer recognised the character of the times, and asked for what they needed. What was that? Shelter from persecution? Power to crush their enemies? No. They asked that God would stretch out His hand — not to shield them, but to heal others — and that with all boldness they might speak the Word, and that signs and wonders might be done in the name of His holy servant Jesus.
The filling itself was never on their list:
We ought not to be surprised that our souls are filled with blessing. When they had prayed, the place was shaken. Better still, "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit." They had not asked for this; they had asked for boldness, and they got it.
Commentators differ on what the shaking meant. One reads it as the Creator answering those who had appealed to Him:
How certain the answer is, when the Lord and His interests are what the prayer is all about! God assures them at once that He has heard: He shakes the very place where they are gathered. This is the answer of the Creator, whom they had appealed to. He will yet "shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and shake all nations," to bring in Christ (Hag. 2:6-7).
Another sees the shaken building as a picture of what was happening inside them:
Their prayer was united and real, and God answered in a striking way: He shook the building they were in. This pictures the deep stirring of the Spirit of God in their souls. They were all filled with the Spirit, which gave boldness in speaking the word of God. Such a miracle today would likely excite us so much that we would forget to proclaim the word.
Scripture also speaks of people being full of the Spirit, and the two phrases are not interchangeable:
In a few cases we have the word "full" of the Spirit, but in most it is "filled." The difference seems to be this. "Full of the Spirit" describes the habitual state of a soul always controlled by the Spirit — as our blessed Lord was, and Stephen and Barnabas in their measure. "Filled with the Spirit" is very often for some special service, prophecy, or testimony. I do not think that the opposite of "filled" is necessarily "empty." For instance, the apostles were filled again and again. It would not be fair to conclude that in between they were in a lower spiritual state. Rather, God gave special power as special emergencies arose.
This filling also differs from the Spirit's permanent home in the believer:
On the day of Pentecost the disciples did not simply receive the Spirit to live in them. "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:4). When a believer is filled with Him, no force inside is active to check His power. This filling of the Spirit is not permanent like His indwelling. Peter was filled with the Spirit again in Acts 4:8, and yet again in verse 31 of the same chapter.
Boldness was not the only result. The verses that follow trace a second effect back to the same cause:
All of them were filled with Him. The very building where they met was shaken, and God answered their prayer for special boldness at once. And He gave them what they had not asked for: they all were "of one heart and soul." This of course flowed from the "one Spirit" filling every one of them. If all believers today were filled with the Spirit, oneness of mind and heart would mark them. It is the only way such oneness can be brought about.
The scene is exceptional, but the experience is open to ordinary believers too:
No doubt we know we are born of the Spirit, and are sealed with the Spirit; but to be filled with the Spirit goes further. This blessing is not confined to the apostles… In Ephesians 5 we are urged to be "filled with the Spirit." Is that an impossible thing? Or is the exhortation not needed? We all should seek to be "filled with the Spirit," which means our whole being under His control.
- Ask — under threat they did not pray for safety or for power over their enemies. They asked for boldness to keep speaking, and for God's hand to heal others.
- Answer — God replied at once, and gave more than they had asked. The place shook, and He filled them all with His Spirit.
- Sign — some read the shaking as the Creator's own answer to those who had appealed to Him. Others see a picture of the Spirit stirring their souls.
- Filling — "filled with the Spirit" means special power for a particular moment. It is not the same as the habitual state of being "full of the Spirit," nor the same as His permanent indwelling.
- Effect — one Spirit filled them all, and two things followed: bold speech, and one heart and soul among them. Believers today are urged to seek the same filling.