“Chutzpah” is a Yiddish word which American humorist Leo Rosten defined as “that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.”
“Chutzpah” has a negative connotation as the synonyms “brazenness” and “arrogance” suggest. But it has a positive connotation too as the synonyms “boldness, confidence, gutsiness” suggest. Positive “chutzpah” is the kind believers displayed in their prayer after Peter and John were released by the authorities having been arrested and tried for preaching in the name of the resurrected Christ (see https://theoldpreacher.com/interruption-malfunction/ ).
On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven 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 take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’ 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 miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 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 4:23-31).
Today we continue following the Acts narrative leading up to Acts 7:1-53, sermon #3 of “The Acts Eight”. The narrative today is almost entirely a prayer.
Whom They Address.
“Sovereign Lord (Greek despotays), you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them” (4:24). By addressing God this way they affirm God’s total authority over his servants, all of his creation, and even over the Sanhedrin opposing them. Thus they encourage themselves that the God they serve is in control of all things.
What They Remember the Sovereign Lord Said.
“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 take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One'” (4:25,26). This God spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of David. As Francis Schaffer entitled one of his books: “He Is There And He Is Not Silent.” And what did God say? The early believers quote from Psalm 2, a psalm of David considered by the Jews to be messianic.
How They Apply What the Sovereign Lord Said.
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 (Acts 4:27,28). Knowing that the Lord is sovereign and remembering what he said in David’s psalm, they conclude that Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles and the people of Israel “did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen”. Each of these anti-Lord people chose to “conspire against [God’s] holy servant Jesus”. Yet their choice was what he had decided beforehand should take place.
What They Ask the Sovereign Lord For.
Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29,30). Remarkably, they don’t pray for protection. While they ask the Lord to pay attention to the threats of their enemies (implying how he may or may not act is up to him), their only concern is that the Lord enable them to carry out their mission “with great boldness.”
The NIV incorrectly breaks 4:29 and 4:30 into two sentences. The ESV translation captures the meaning of the Greek: “And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” In other words, the believers assume Jesus will continue to do the miraculous works he started (as recorded in the Gospel—Acts 1:1) as they speak his word.
Here’s the heart of the “chutzpah” prayer. No one thinks the cost of spreading the Gospel too great. No one gives up the fight and goes home. Jesus is alive. He is Sovereign Lord. They are his witnesses empowered by the Holy Spirit to make him known to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the earth.
How the Sovereign Lord Answered.
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 (4:31). The Holy Spirit is the divine Enabler. On Pentecost they had been filled (2:4). Here they’re filled again. This reminds us that the filling of the Holy Spirit is not a one-time “trophy” experience, as some Pentecostals seem to think. It also tells us this filling isn’t the object of the prayer—empowerment for bearing witness of Christ is, especially in an environment officially hostile to their message. But as church father Chrysostom observed about the place being shaken: “and that made them the more unshaken” (Homily on the Acts of the Apostles 11). May the Lord’s answer to our praying also make us unshaken by whatever opposition or suffering we face!
* * * * *
Many of us who read this blog live in nations without overt opposition to the Gospel—though even in America and West European nations hostility is growing. Some of us who read this live in nations where opposition is overt and dangerous, as it was for these early believers.
All of us, however, should see this prayer as a model. All of us can be Yiddish in praying. “Yiddish” was the language of Central and Eastern European Jews until the mid-20th century. We could all do with a little Yiddish chuztpah, couldn’t we!
Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens, the earth, the sea,
and everything in them.
You own it all and you rule it all—even the people opposed to you.
As you spoke long ago,
what your Son endured was your will,
so today nothing happens outside your will.
You know the opposition we face to making Jesus known,
some of it from outside, some from within ourselves.
Take note of those threats, Lord,
and enable us as your servants to speak your word with great boldness,
—with chutzpah, unmoved by resistance or rejection or dread—
while you heal and do miraculous signs and wonders
through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
In his name we pray. Amen.”
Recent Comments