Acts 4:24-29

Lord, grant that your church may be bold especially in these turbulent times.

The Scriptures provide a picture of the early church in this way:
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. (Acts 4:24-29)

Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ (Acts 4:11)

In a world that was rapidly changing and where morality was at an all-time low, the early church laid out for us in the Book of Acts knew what they stood for. And in the face of persecution and threats on their lives, they responded in prayer to God for boldness to speak His Word.

In the modern time where the world is again changing at lightning speed, and where there has been such steep moral decline, I want to ask us if we as a people of God and as a local household of Kum Yan Methodist Church – do we know WHO we stand for? Verses 11-12 tell us that Jesus is the “stone the builders rejected, who became the cornerstone” of salvation.

As we live in the Last Days, and we approach the second coming of our Lord, would our response to a hostile world be the same as with the early church – to pray for boldness to speak God’s Word so that others can come into salvation through Jesus Christ?

Let’s pray. Lord, grant that your church may be bold especially in these turbulent times. Help us to stand upon the firm foundation of Your Word, speak the truth in love, and to care for a world in deep trouble, that in all things, Christ may be glorified in us. Amen.