Acts 4: 23 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.
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.
Ps 2:1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
“To a graceless neck the yoke of Christ is intolerable, but to the saved it is easy and light … We may judge ourselves by this, do we love that yoke, or do we wish to cast it from us?” —Spurgeon
God laughs because He sits in the heavens. He sits as the Great King on a glorious throne. He isn’t pacing back and forth in the throne room of heaven, wondering what He should do next. God sits in perfect peace.
“God does not tremble. He does not hide behind a vast celestial rampart, counting the enemy and calculating whether or not he has sufficient force to counter this new challenge to his kingdom. He does not even rise from where he is sitting. He simply ‘laughs’ at these great imbeciles.” —Boice
“This derisive laughter of God is the comfort of all those who love righteousness. It is the laughter of the might of holiness; it is the laughter of the strength of love. God does not exult over the sufferings of sinning men. He does hold in derision all the proud boastings and violence of such as seek to prevent His accomplishment of His will.” —Morgan
The Insatiable Desire for World Domination!
Is 14: 12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
An opponent of Christianity was the Roman Emperor Diocletian (245-313 A.D.). He was such a determined enemy of Christians that he persecuted the church mercilessly, and fancied that he had defeated Christianity. He struck a medal with this inscription: “The name of Christianity being extinguished.”
Diocletian also set up two monuments on the frontier of his empire with these inscriptions:
Diocletian Jovian Maximian Herculeus Caesares Augusti for having extended the Roman Empire in the east and the west and for having extinguished the name of Christians who brought the Republic to ruin
Diocletian Jovian Maximian Herculeus Caesares Augusti for having everywhere abolished the superstition of Christ for having extended the worship of the gods
Diocletian is dead and gone, a footnote on the pages of history. The fame and glory of Jesus Christ is spread over all the earth.
The LORD shall hold them in derision.
Evil Tyrants who sought World Dominance!
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
The chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and Führer of the Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler was perhaps the most intelligent, creative and brutal dictators of them all. He was largely responsible for the holocaust and the second World War. He believed that Jews were the root cause of all problems and set out to eliminate them. His actions resulted in death of over 50 million people. Hitler committed suicide in his bunker on 30th April 1945. Hard to believe that he was once a talented artist and part of a Bohemian community.Joseph Stalin (1878-1953)
Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin was dictator of the Soviet Union from 1922 till his death in 1953. As a young man, he was a robber and an assassin. For almost 30 years, he reigned with terror and violence in the Soviet Union. His decisions led to a famine that killed millions. Forget enemies, he even killed families of people who were fond of him. Under his rule, more than 1.5 million German women were raped and in all, he easily killed over 20 million people. He once said, “One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is simply a statistic.” Ironically, he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 & 1948. He died of a stroke in 1953.
Saddam Hussein (1937-2006)
He was the dictator of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. During his reign, he authorised countless attacks on people. His policies made way for the death of not less than 2 million people. He ordered chemical attacks, eye gouging, beatings and severe shocks on people. He also recorded several tortures and deaths to watch them later. Saddam was found guilty of crimes against humanity and hanged in 2006.
Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), Kim Jong-il (1941-2011) and Kim Jong-un (born 1983)
Kim Jong-Sung was the dictator of North Korea from 1948-1972. He started the Korean war, which resulted in the death of 3 million Koreans. People of Korea were forced and brainwashed to idolise him. His son Kim Jong-il continued his legacy after Sung’s death and Kim Jong-un is carrying on the same as he is dictator now. Millions have died of famine, starvation and execution and some methods of torture have been barbaric. North Korea has suffered from almost 70 years and still suffering from the wrath and policies of their dictators for the 3rd generation in a row.Mao Zedong (1893-1976)
He was the dictator of China from 1943-1976. Mao had a dream of making China a superpower but in the process, he created the largest genocide in history. Although he has been credited with modernising China and making it a world power, his actions killed around 40 to 70 million people through forced labour, executions and starvation. Mao himself succumbed to illness.
Mao started the socialist education movement. He aimed the concept at young ones who would eventually wrest the power away from the older guard. By 1964 this movement was renamed the “four cleanups movement” whose goal was cleansing politics, economics, ideas, and organization of “reactionaries”.
This led to the formation of the “Red Guards” who were organized to punish intellectuals and take out Mao’s political adversaries. The Cultural Revolution was now underway, and its overriding mission was to abolish: Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas. Something Mao fervently believed in was that destruction and chaos could bring re-birth. So he told his followers to destroy buildings, sacred objects, talk back to ones elders, punish them, turn them in, and kill those who did not agree.
His policies and political purges from 1949 to 1976 caused the deaths of 49 to 78 million people.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1902-1989)
Khomeini was responsible for bringing about the 1979 Iranian Revolution. He was the religious leader of Iran from 1979-1989. The Shia laws were made out to be very stringent and those in violation of it were tortured and killed. He refused the offer to make peace with Iraq, which led to the death of around a million people. The Islamic holy war killed over 2 million people. He succumbed to cancer.
The Gospel Warriors are the Answer
Acts 4:29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
They spoke the word of God with boldness: They received the boldness they asked for. “The word boldness means lucid and daring statement. In the Greek the word is parresia, ‘telling it all.’” (Ogilvie)
This boldness is necessary today; we need to tell it all. We often deliberately hide the work of God in our life from others who would actually benefit from hearing about it.
Their boldness was a gift from God, received through prayer. It was not something that they tried to work up in themselves.
Acts 4:30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 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.
The idea that we are “Spirit filled” only at an experience known as the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit” is wrong, though there may be a wonderful and first yielding to the Spirit’s power. We must be continually filled with the Holy Spirit, and make our “immersion” in Him a constant experience.
The King of Glory!
Ps 24:7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory.
Jesus is the King of Kings & Lord over a Kingdom of Kings & Priest!
Rev 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
7 ¶ Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth
Revelation 11:15 describes an exciting consummation of this inheritance: Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”