Recently laid aside by sudden serious illness, I have been unexpectedly challenged by this subject. I have no doubt that both the Old and New Testament Scriptures teach this in many contexts and at many different times. However, reading the book of Acts afresh, along with the commentary by John Stott¹, I have been forcibly struck by the viewpoint of the first apostles when, very shortly after the Day of Pentecost, they encountered serious opposition to their public ministry in the Temple courts of Jerusalem. Their leaders, Peter and John, were arrested and thrown into prison, and the following day arraigned before the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court of Israel at that time. Though the court found that no law had been broken, and neither could its members deny that a miracle of healing had publicly taken place, a stern gagging order was issued. What were the apostles to do next?

Indications of God’s authority

Firstly, Peter and John gave a comprehensive report to their fellow-believers (Acts 4:23). No record exists of how many were present. What happened next is salutary – without further discussion, they all turned immediately to prayer, with “one accord” (Acts 4:24). Brought up as I was with the Authorised Version, and usually now reading from the New King James, their familiar opening words address God thus: “Lord, you are God”. However, behind this phrase is simply one Greek word: ‘despota’. Sometimes translated ‘Master’, it can also mean ‘owner’ and ‘ruler’, indicating someone of absolute authority. In the New Testament we find it used for God by Simeon (Luke 2:29), by Jude, the brother of Jesus (Jude 4), by Paul in regard to serving God (2 Tim 2:21), and by Peter in connection with apostates (2Pet 2:1). It is also the word behind our English word ‘despot’, one whose authority is exercised brutally. It seems likely that such a connotation has inhibited Christian attention to this word. However, the NIV, NLT and ESV translations do render it as “Sovereign Lord”.

The apostles express their confidence in the One who speaks in revelation, divinely communicating things that will certainly happen.

Nonetheless, as a word used without embarrassment by the apostles, we must not pass it by. Though the first apostles were Jewish, and unquestionably familiar with their threefold Hebrew Scriptures, the Torah, Neviim and Ketuvim (Law, Prophets & Writings), it is clear from their quotations in the New Testament that they were familiar with the already-existing Greek translation (made by Jewish scholars roughly about 250BC)², known as the Septuagint. It is there that we find the roots of the apostolic use of ‘despota’. This expression is the variation used in addressing such a person, derived from the basic noun, ‘despotes’. In Genesis 15, verses 2 and 8, Abram’s address to the Lord God is ‘despota kyrie’ (Gen 2:2,8). When God speaks to the kingdom of Judah early in the ministry of Isaiah, His title, “The Lord of Hosts”, expressed in Greek is ‘ho despotes kurios sabaoth’ (Isa 1:24), whilst just a little later, “the Lord of Hosts” is similarly rendered, ‘ho despotes kurios’. In the Psalms we also find related words, such as in Psalm 66:7, where the verb used in “He rules by his power for ever” is ‘despozo’, whilst God’s dominion in Psalm 103:22 and Psalm 145:13 is rendered ‘despoteia’, which means absolute, indisputable, authority.

The apostles’ prayer

Such, then, was the apostles’ understanding of God as utterly sovereign when they prayed following their arrest. Now let’s explore their understanding a little further, as their prayer proceeds. I am indebted to John Stott for drawing attention to three of the four following sovereign elements of the prayer, which focusses on what God had done as a basis for their pleas. The main elements can be expressed as ‘You made’, ‘You spoke’, ‘You anointed’ and ‘You determined’.

Make no mistake about it, our faith, our confidence and our message are all weakened enormously if we do not absolutely trust our sovereign Creator.

1.  “You … made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them” (Acts 4:24). Here they express their certainty - not only in the sovereign creative power of the Lord God, but in his historic exercise of that power. Here we are reminded of the opening verses of the Tanakh, “In the beginning God created ….. God said ….. God made ….. it was so ….. it was good ….. Then God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good.” (Gen 1:1-31) Make no mistake about it, our faith, our confidence and our message are all weakened enormously if we do not absolutely trust our sovereign Creator. Moreover, it is fascinating to see how the more that scientists delve into the minutiae of living things, the more the evidence points to supremely intelligent design, the language and mechanics of DNA being especially striking.³ Moreover, astronomical data increasingly attest the truth of Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God”.
2.  You spoke “by the mouth of your servant David …. the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and His Christ” (Acts 4:25-27). Here the apostles express their confidence in the One who speaks in revelation, divinely communicating things that will certainly happen. He, the Sovereign Lord, not only reveals his intentions, but commits himself to performing his promised actions. Here they identify in Christ Jesus the fulfilment of what God had revealed some thousand years earlier to David. Sometimes that revelation is even more personal, such as that given to the godly Jew, Simeon: “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” – a promise kept when the baby Jesus was brought to the Temple in Jerusalem for circumcision (Luke 2:25-32).
3. You anointed “your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:27). In these words, we find the apostles’ confidence that the ministry of Jesus was under the anointing of God’s Holy Spirit. Several of them had been present at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, at Bethabara, where John the Baptist testified that he had seen “the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he remained upon him” in fulfilment of God’s earlier revelation to him (John 1:32-34). Moreover, Jesus himself, not much later, testified to that anointing, when reading the prophetic Isaiah 61 in the synagogue of his home town, Nazareth: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me ….. Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:18-21). Here again, we see God performing his promised sovereign action – further reason for apostolic confidence.
4. You determined “whatever Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel” did against Jesus (Acts 4:27-28). Here the verb used is ‘proorizo’, which means to pre-determine, foreordain. God himself has repeatedly revealed his commitment to such action, not only on this occasion. Listen to his words via the prophet Isaiah: “As I have thought, so shall it come to pass” (Isa 14:24), “My counsel shall stand, and will do all my pleasure …. I have spoken and I will also bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also do it” (Isa 46:10-11), “So shall my word be ….. it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (55:11). We love to cherish such commitment in the context of promised blessings, but what about the negative aspects, the revelations of destruction and judgment? It is sobering to reflect, for example, on the destruction of the Temple in 70AD, foretold by Jesus (Luke 21:6), or on the earthquake foretold to Amos (compare Amos 1:1 with Amos 6:11 and Amos 8:8), remembered by Zechariah (Zech 14:5), and evidenced in sediments from about 750BC in the Dead Sea, and in destruction layers at ancient settlement sites, from Hazor in the north of Israel to En Hazeva in the south.⁴ What God says he will do, he does.

A surprising response

Did they pray against the authorities, or that the threats would be removed? No, they concentrated on the priority of evangelism!

Above all, God IS sovereign. Whatever happens, God IS sovereign over all. Believe him. Trust him. Turn to him with confidence. Think about the apostles’ response to their imprisonment and gagging order. How did they pray? “Now, Lord, look on their threats” (v.29). Did they pray against the authorities, or that the threats would be removed? No, they concentrated on the priority of evangelism! “Grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word … and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” (Acts 4:30). Their priority was to proclaim the full gospel of the Sovereign Lord. What is ours?

Notes

1. Stott, J.R.W., (1991) The Message of Acts, Inter-Varsity Press
2. A Brief History of the Septuagint - biblearchaeology.org
3. “We have seen that the genetic code is structured, meaningful, representative, coded language and we know of no natural process that could account for it” – Professor David Galloway, (2021), Design Dissected, John Ritchie Publishing
4. See Austin, S.A., Franz, G.W., & Frost, E.G., (2000) "Amos's Earthquake: An Extraordinary Middle East Seismic Event of 750 B.C.", INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGY REVIEW Vol 42(7) pp. 657—671 also, The Scientific and Scriptural Impact of Amos' Earthquake | The Institute for Creation Research (icr.org)