Acts 4:27-28
For truly in this city (Jerusalem) there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.
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My goodness! The vast, vast majority of the “people of God” were against Jesus, just like the people of the world. Peter and John having been threatened by the Council for proclaiming the excellencies of Jesus who had called them out of darkness and into His marvelous light {1Pt.2:9} were now released and returned back to join with other believers reporting what had happened. They are now, as recorded in today’s verses, all praying to the Father. It was a prayer that shook the place and resulted in the Holy Spirit falling upon them and filling them all! {Acts 4:31}

The threats and the persecutions, even the crucifixion of the Lord were all the plan of God. What a difficult truth for so many Christians to grasp. In spite of all of the secular and the religious leaders during that time who hated Jesus and wanted Him dead, it was as told in these verses, both the plan and the purpose of Almighty God for His beloved Son to be sent to the cross to die. The Father was pleased for Jesus to be pierced through for our transgressions, to crush Him and make Him an offering for our sins. {Is.53:6,10} And Jesus was the only one who could—the sinless Lamb of God without spot or blemish.

We really need to come to understand, that as Paul wrote, it is God who is at work in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure {Php.2:13} regardless of what the situation may look like.

So later Paul and Silas were beaten and mistreated (illegal by the way) and then thrown into the inner prison by the jailer with their feet put in stocks. {Acts 16:16-32} Insult to injury as they say! But Paul and Silas did NOT say that, what they did was to pray and sing praises to God! What God did was to shake the earth and set them free! But as we can now see, apparently the Lord's plan and purpose in that account was actually to set the jailer free!

Fearful that he would be harshly punished for this event, that jailer asked Paul what he could do to be saved. Paul said, what should be a common confession for us, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved, you and your household." {Acts.16:31} There was a real revival meeting at the jailer’s house that night! Exactly as God had purposed and planned.

On another occasion {Acts 27-28} when Paul was being transported to Rome to stand trial before the Caesar (once again for his faithfulness) the ship he was on was shipwrecked in a massive, massive storm. Paul and the others, sailors, soldiers and prisoners, 276 in all, went into the water and made it to land on the island of Malta. Almost immediately a poisonous serpent (or perhaps The Serpent} lashed out and locked on to Paul as he gathered firewood. Paul shook it off and kept on going! The Lord had said Paul would stand before Caesar and His word cannot be broken. So now to the plan and purpose of God:

There was a leading man of the island whose father was lying very sick in bed. Paul went to him prayed, laid hands on him and he was healed. As word spread the rest of the people on the island who had diseases were coming to him and getting cured. {Acts 28:9}

Storms, shipwrecks, the threat of mutiny, and a poisonous snake! Everything that Satan could throw at that faithful saint of God. But Paul knew God’s faithfulness, and as a matter of fact revival broke out over the whole island! God used everything in Paul's life to accomplish His work in and through him, just as He will in ours. Paul wrote it and lived it, and I surely believe it!

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

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