Prayer for Boldness | Acts 4:23-31

It has been said that, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”. This saying has proven true. The willingness of Christians to boldly live out their faith in the midst of persecution and the threat of death has paradoxically led to the growth and spread of Christianity, rather than its destruction. Bold witness in the face of suffering has long worked to inspire and embolden those who looked on. Consider some of these examples from Church history.

(155 AD) Polycarp, a disciple of the Apostle John and bishop of Smyrna, was arrested for refusing to worship the Roman emperor. At his trial, he was told to curse Christ and live. He replied: “Eighty and six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King and Savior?” He was burned at the stake and then stabbed when the flames did not consume him fast enough.

Jim Elliot was a missionary to the Auca people of Ecuador. Shortly after first contact, he and his team were killed by spears. His wife Elisabeth Elliot would later return to these people who killed her husband and many would come to Christ. Jim’s inspiring life is summed up well by his well known quote:

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

In 2015, Twenty-one Egyptian Christians were captured by ISIS and beheaded on a beach in Libya. In the video, as they were executed, many could be seen calling out the name of Jesus. One of the martyrs was not a Christian before capture, but reportedly converted by watching the unwavering faith of the others.

Stories like this are inspiring but often feel far removed from our experience. For many of us living in the US, persecution for our faith has seemed pretty light. However, in recent weeks, the powerful example of bold faith in the life of Charlie Kirk has brought the reality closer to home. 

Charlie sought to proclaim truth and boldly bear witness to his faith in Christ. As a result of his bold and unashamed stance for truth, he was shot and killed. This event has rocked our nation. It has exposed a deepening fracture between worldviews in our nation as well as a greater resistance and open hostility toward biblical truth. One of the primary effects of these events among Christians has been to inspire the rest of us to be more bold in our faith.  Praise God for this, and may that be true for us!

But the desire to be bold, or talking about being bold, is easier said than done. I hear a story like these and I am fired up and feel ready to run through a brickwall. But then, the thought of actually walking up to someone and telling them about Jesus nearly sends me into a panic. What if they think I am dumb? What if they won’t like me anymore? What if they say mean things behind my back? As silly as these light persecutions sound compared to being burned at the stake or shot for your faith. These kinds of fears can keep us sidelined from ever actually telling anyone about Jesus.

If you look at yourself honestly, you can begin to be discouraged by your lack of boldness compared to these examples of faith. You think, “I could never do that!” Whether the persecution you face for Christ is seemingly light, or if it is life threatening, you will be placed in situations that will require boldness that you cannot muster up on your own. Regardless of the nature of the persecution, you will need a supernatural, spirit empowered boldness like that of great men and women of faith before. It is apparent that to live faithfully as a Christian in this world will require this kind of boldness. The thought of having to live boldly can sound scary and intimidating, but God’s word to us this morning serves to instruct and fill us with confidence in the face of opposition.

Acts 4:23–31

“When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,

“‘Why did the Gentiles rage,

and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers were gathered together,

against the Lord and against his Anointed’—

for truly in this city 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 plan had predestined to take place. 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.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”

Our text for this morning serves to teach us how God grants emboldening power to his people in the face of persecution. In order to live faithfully as a Christian in this life, you will need boldness. There are at least three truths in this passage which are meant to help prepare you to live a godly life of boldness.

Expect opposition

V. 23, begins with  “When they were released”. For context, the ‘they’ here are Peter and John.

And they are being released after having been arrested and threatened to speak no more in the name of Jesus. The powerful Jewish leaders, high priest, and teachers of the law had them arrested after they had healed a lame man and begun teaching the people about Jesus and the resurrection of the dead. We are not told exactly what the religious leaders' threats to the disciples were, but given how murderously opposed they had been to Jesus, it is safe to assume these threats were violent and potentially life threatening. Whatever the threats, it is clearly a power play done by the religious, cultural leaders to strike fear in the disciples and get them to shut up about Jesus. They could not have these meddlesome christians running around telling people about the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a threat to their power and their way of life.

So, what do the Disciples do? It says, “they went to their friends”, literally “they went to their own”. This makes clear that they had an awareness of their distinction as followers of Christ and the rest of the Jewish people.

When they gather with the rest of the believers, they report all that had happened to them, particularly what the Chief priests and leaders had told them - That they must stop talking about Jesus, or else…The response is that the company of believers lift their voices in praise and prayer to God. But this is not primarily a prayer of triumph, celebrating the release of the disciples. Rather, it is a prayer for courage and strength against the expected opposition.

The picture we get here is not of a fearful group of believers, who are rattled by the threats of the people in power. They are not hidden away in a locked room like they were after Jesus’ crucifixion. At this point, they are not surprised they are facing some resistance. In fact, they expect it. Which gives them an unshakeable steadiness in the face of their opponents. Consider their prayer. They are praying Scripture (which is informative to our own prayer life), and the passage they pray is out of Psalm 2:

“‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—”

They are rightly using God’s authoritative word in scripture to interpret the events in their lives.

They take this messianic Psalm- wherein the Gentiles, pagan nations, and kings of the earth are rising up in opposition against God and against his anointed - and they connect it to Jesus. This is clear in V. 27 where they say,

“truly in this city 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”

The anointed one in Psalm 2 that the nations of the earth are rising up against in opposition, is really God’s anointed son - Jesus Christ. And the ones rising up against him here are not just generic, pagan gentiles. Observe the parallels here: Pilate and Herod were powerful political rulers who sentenced Jesus to death. Along with the Gentiles, who raged against him and shouted for his crucifixion. And thirdly and most striking are the peoples of Israel. The people of Israel with their religious leaders and teachers of the law, are actually playing the part of God’s enemies. All this in fulfillment of the scripture they claimed to know and teach.

There is a clear distinction being made here between the enemies of God and the friends of God. And not surprisingly, the point of separation is over the person of Jesus Christ. He is the point of division. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, nobody comes to the Father except through him. Anyone who rejects Christ is an enemy of God. The reality is that we are in a war, one in which there is no neutrality. Jesus taught his disciples to expect this:

John 15:18–21

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

One of the reasons the disciples could remain steady in the face of persecution was because Jesus trained them to be prepared for it. If you thought that following Christ would be all roses and butterflies, you are going to be up for a rude awakening when you step out into the real world. Like the rocky soil in the parable of the sower, when trouble or persecution come on account of Christ, you fall away.  But God graciously warns his people to be prepared for this. And so, we need to increase our pain threshold and expectation for resistance.

Our friend Jim Donohue compares it to a boxer. The key to success for a boxer is his ability not just to land a punch, but to take a hit and keep going. Heavyweight Boxing Champion Mike Tyson famously says, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. The question for us is how do you respond when you get hit? 

Are you surprised when threats and opposition arise on account of your faith? Does getting blown off by a friend or coworker when you try to start a spiritual conversation make you want to shut up and never open your mouth again? Do media headlines calling Christians bigots or some other name make you want to keep your head down in the public square? It ought not, and it should not surprise us that this is the case. The world hated Christ, so they will also hate us. A servant is not above his master.

Part of the key to handling this kind of rejection is to see that people are not really rejecting us, but rejecting Christ. The quotation of Ps. 2 implies that the opposition that Peter and John just experienced is a continuation of the opposition experienced by Jesus himself. They did not regard their opponents as attacking them personally, but assess the situation historically and theologically (This is key in handling persecution). Their opponents are rejecting them out of a rejection of Christ, just as they had been told ahead of time.

We see this in Acts 4:13:

“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”

The hatred the council had toward Jesus when he stood before them just a few months earlier is now being directed toward his followers who continue boldly speaking in his name. So, we ought not be surprised by this rejection Rather, we should count it a privilege to share in the suffering of our Lord. To be rejected for the sake of Christ is a great blessing. Luke 6:22-23:

"Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven"

People hate the truth, because the truth will always find places where we are wrong and need correction, 

This is an offense to our pride and confronts our overly inflated view of ourselves. We cannot stand this. This was true for each of us at one point, so we should expect the same kind of resistance from those who do not yet know Christ. In spite of this opposition, Christians have great reason for boldness. We have experienced and know the truth of the gospel.

Stand firm in the Truth

One of the reasons why it is so difficult for us to be bold in our faith is because we are idolizing the opinions of others. We look to other people’s evaluation of us for comfort or security. We cannot stand the thought of people disapproving of us. This is called the fear of man.

This is sin that we need to repent of. We must instead find our reason for hope, purpose, and meaning in the truth of God’s word. Ryan mentioned last week that boldness comes from resolving, by God’s grace, to fear God not Man. This means that we are resolved to have God’s truth define our lives, not the opinions of people.

Notice the Disciples example here. Other than a few instances of mocking, this is really their first taste of persecution we see in the book of Acts. Following the opposition, the disciples gather to pray. And their prayer begins by confessing and reminding themselves of who God is. V.24

“They lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them”

In the face of opposition from powerful people, they recount the truth that God is the Sovereign Lord over all creation and all of history. He rules over all earthly powers, even over those who come at them with threats. The disciples had a robust view of God’s sovereignty. And they allow this truth to inform the way they view their current circumstance. Do you tend to reason this way? Is God’s truth interpreting your circumstances, or do you tend to let your circumstances form your view of God? We must follow the disciples' example. They acknowledge that powerful nations of the earth rise up against God and his followers.

And yet, as they pray Psalm 2, they recount his good providence to reveal beforehand the pattern of opposition experienced by the Messiah and his followers. This opposition is real,  but in light of God’s sovereignty, it does not lead them to despair. They pray in v. 27,

“for truly in this city 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 plan had predestined to take place.”

God’s enemies never have the edge on him. They, as morally free agents, really act in rebellion against God. Seeking to oppose his rule and reign over their lives. But in doing so, they still work to ultimately serve God’s purpose. Resistance from God’s enemies is not an obstacle to God’s plan, it is regularly shown to be the very way in which God’s purpose is carried out.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the death of Christ. Who killed Jesus? Humanly speaking, he was put to death by evil men - “Herod, Pilate, Gentiles, and people of Israel”. But ultimately (as Isaiah 53 says) “it was the Father’s will to crush him”. God’s purpose to save people from their sins, required the sacrifice of his perfect Son.So, in what appeared to be the greatest defeat and humiliation of Jesus in his death, actually worked for his ultimate glorification as the savior of the World. God sovereignly worked out of the greatest evil ever committed, the murder of the blameless Son of God, to accomplish the greatest good. Not that sin is less evil because God brings good out of it, but he is all the more glorified by this.

In the same way, the disciples are confident that God will continue to sovereignly work their current opposition out for good. Just as all who opposed Christ ended up doing whatever God’s hand and plan had predestined to take place they continue in v. 29 “and now, Lord, look upon their threats…” They view the resistance of their opponents as another opportunity for God’s sovereign power to be on display. For the glory of God and the good of his people.

How would your perspective in the face of opposition change, if you knew that whatever the enemies of God try to do to resist the advance of the gospel ultimately end up working out for greater progress?Well, this is how it works. We see this theme consistently throughout the book of Acts, and the rest of church history: Attacks upon the church and its message only lead to further Christian expansion. This is an amazing truth that ought to fill us with boldness

Another reason we ought to have boldness is because we are not proclaiming a message of our own making. We can be bold because we are speaking God’s words, not our own. This is not arrogance. We are not being arrogant when we believe what God says is true and tell others the same. We are submitting to an authority outside of ourselves. We are humbly acknowledging that we are creatures, with finite limitations, who wholly depend on revelation from our Creator for discerning what is true. God defines reality for us. There is no life apart from his word. And by God’s grace, he has revealed himself to us, and in particular, revealed how sinners like you and me can be reconciled to eternal life with him. This is the Gospel. That Christ died for our sins so that all who turn from their sin and trust in him will receive forgiveness and restoration of fellowship with God. This is a powerful message. One that we ought not be ashamed of.

But we can be tempted to think, is that it? Maybe we should add some things to make following Christ look more appealing? We aren’t going to be very popular if we are always calling people to repent. Perhaps we should lighten up on calling people to turn from their sin, because that will just offend people and they may walk away. Brothers and Sisters, we must resolve to never shy away from speaking the truth of the Gospel.

Regardless of what response people may have, there is Salvation nowhere else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.Rom. 1:16 says,

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes”.

The gospel is the power of God for salvation. There is nowhere else. This is why the disciples are praying this way in v. 29,

“And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness”.

They do not need to huddle up and make a new strategy for how to make this thing keep moving forward. They know there is only one way, and that is to continue speaking of Christ.

People do not need us to tell them how great they are. They do not need some sort of humanistic therapy. They need to turn from trusting in their own way, and submit themselves to the Lordship of Christ. They need to reorder their lives according to his word. This reordering under the authority of Christ is what each person needs. We need it in our own lives, our families, in our community. The true and powerful words of the living God have been revealed to us. So we should have confidence building our lives on it and telling others about it tooThe Greek word used for what the believers were praying for here is ‘parresia’ - Boldness, confidence, freedom of speech. The picture I get of this free speech is of a sports fan (esp. Nebraska or Vikings fans) who are convinced about the strength of their roster for the coming season. And so, they boldly begin to make claims about how successful they will be and how many wins they will have…Often this confidence proves misplaced. But that is never true for the confidence we can have in speaking God’s word. Speaking freely, with boldness, is an evidence of faith. It demonstrates confidence that God is able to deliver on all that he has said and promised. And this confidence gives way to free, emboldened speech. 

On the other hand, timidity to speak God’s word indicates a lack of confidence in it. It demonstrates a heart of unbelief. I am sure we are all familiar with this experience of timidity, and what we need to do is repent of our unbelief and ask for God to help us. We need him to increase our faith.

Be Bold in the Spirit

Boldness: Spirit inspired courage and confidence to speak in spite of any danger or threat. It is not hard to share good news with others. We do it all the time without even thinking. Telling others about the best new movie, announcing an engagement, or letting everyone know the boss said everybody gets the rest of the week off paid.  Any natural person would feel no aversion to sharing good news like this with others. Then why is it so hard for us to share the best news, the Gospel, with others? We have lived in the world long enough to know that many people feel awkward and offended if someone brings up spiritual things. We know that we will face resistance and also know we need to increase our pain threshold in light of this resistance, but how? We need the power of the Holy Spirit

What does this look like? Consider the request of the believers’ prayer in v. 29-30. 

“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.””

First, notice that they did not pray for their deliverance from suffering nor for the judgment of their enemies, but for the ability to continue proclaiming the gospel in the face of opposition. They had bought into the reality that they would suffer with Christ. They were convinced that the truth of Christ was worth it. And so now they pray that God would grant them power to continue speaking God’s word with all boldness. Have we bought into the reality that to follow Christ means we will face opposition? Do we see that the joy and glory that is ours in Christ makes it all worth it? We need the work of the Spirit in us to convince us of these truths. Then we too must ask for God’s empowering presence to grant us boldness to speak of him.

This is not natural. People tend to think that the way to convince the world of something is to scream louder, threaten, or convince your opponents through violent force. But, that is not how the Gospel goes forward. We must follow our Lord’s decree. We are to make disciples of all nations by proclaiming his authoritative word. The Gospel goes forward as God’s people speak in the power of his Spirit. Calvin insightfully comments on the actions of the disciples in this text…“A few men unarmed, furnished with no garrisons, do show forth more power in their voice alone, than all the world [does], by raging against them.” (Calvin) The world will rage against the truth, but this only serves to confirm the power of God’s Spirit to effectively change lives through his unstoppable Word. That is all the enemies of God can do, is rage in vain, as God’s word continue to go forward powerfully

Whatever internal resistance the believers may have felt in their flesh, they were not dwelling on all the reasons they shouldn’t tell others about Jesus, or how to play it safe. They were eager to get back out into the battle and keep telling others about Jesus. Trusting that God would go before them in power to do all the heavy lifting. This is a prayer of faith. They prayed to be strengthened to act on their part - to speak God’s word, knowing that God would be faithful to do his - heal, transform, and save people in Jesus’s name. After praying for this Spirit-empowered boldness,  we see God responds in 3 observable ways. These echo and reinforce the reality of the Spirit’s coming at pentecost. First, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken (Physical sign). Then, we read, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Spiritual experience). And finally, that they continued to speak the word with all boldness. (Observable effect). This is the effect of being filled with the Holy Spirit: They continue to speak the word of Christ in spite of opposition. And as we have seen and will continue to see in the book of Acts, The Spirit unleashes the power of God (as described in v.30) as his word goes forth from his people.

The believers were not just resolved to try harder. They acknowledged their dependence on God and asked him to grant them Spirit empowered boldness.

“The Holy Spirit will move them by first moving you. If you can rest without their being saved, they will rest too; but if you are filled with an agony for them, if you cannot bear that they should be lost, you will soon find that they are uneasy too. I hope you will get into such a state that you will dream about your child, or about your hearer perishing for lack of Christ, and start up at once and begin to cry, " O God, give me converts or I die!" Then you will have converts."

Charles Spurgeon

We need this kind of fervent boldness. It is important to note here that there is a type of counterfeit boldness that does not come from the Holy Spirit, but is manufactured out of the flesh. The kind of boldness we need is not a personality trait. It is not a brash, obnoxious arrogance as one speaks. Just because someone can get into an intense verbal brawl, that does not make their boldness godly. Boldness from the Spirit is consistent with the fruit of the Spirit. It should be marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self control, etc. This kind of boldness is fundamentally a gift of divine grace. It's not a personality trait that some people have and others don’t.  It is a virtue, that by God’s grace, can be cultivated and grown as we depend on the Lord by faith. That sounds nice. But what does that look like? Conclude with 2 ways to rely on the Spirit for Boldness.

First, we are to seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. While it is true that all believers have the Holy Spirit in them at conversion, Scripture instructs us to be continually filled with the Spirit. The believers in our text already had the Holy Spirit in them, but as they prayed for boldness they received a fresh filling of the Spirit to empower them for ministry. We see this experience throughout the book of Acts. In thinking about this, I have been helped by the analogy of the pilot light in a gas fireplace. Like the continual burning of a pilot light, all believers have the Spirit always present, but when the gas comes on, whoosh, the fire takes off. This instantaneous intensification of the fire's power is what the filling of the spirit is like.

We position ourselves for such sovereign empowerments by seeking to be constantly “filled with the Spirit”—through, e.g.:  a consistent drawing near to the Lord, seeking his presence and delighting in him; daily dependence upon the Lord, seeking his grace, guidance, & glory; a consistent intake and internalization of his Word, studying it, embracing it, and meditating upon it; and accessing all the means of grace available to us individually and in the church.

The second way I am helped to think about relying on the Spirit for boldness to speak is the acronym APTAT (This coined by John Piper):

• A - Admit: Admit to the Lord your neediness. Confess your fear of man, your lack of confidence in God’s word, your idolatry of self preservation and comfort, admit that you do not have the strength to speak boldly without his help.

• P- Pray for help: Like the disciples in Acts 4, Ask the Lord to fill you with his Spirit and grant you strength to continue speaking with all boldness even in the face of threats and opposition.

• T - Trust his promises: Trust that God will really fulfill his promise from Acts 1:8 - to make you a witness by his spirit. Remind yourself that it is his powerful gospel that is the power of God for Salvation. Trust that his word is living and active and that it does not return void.

• A - Act the Miracle: After admitting your need, praying for help, and trusting God’s promises, take steps to act trusting that the Lord will meet you. Go up and initiate that gospel conversation. Make that phone call to a lost friend or relative. Share the truth that you know speaks to the cultural conversation your coworkers are having around the watercooler. As you step out to act in faith, you can be assured that the Lord will give you what you need. I have often found this to be the case: There is no time that I want to speak of Christ less than right before I am about to evangelize. But there is no time that I want to speak more than right after leaning into it. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in you - who loves to magnify Christ to us and through us. If you are lacking christian joy, one of the most potent remedies I have found is to share Christ with someone.

• T- Thank God for his goodness and Provision: It is a miracle that any of us would be stirred to step into a conversation to talk about Jesus. Thank God for giving you the desire and faith to tell others the Gospel. It is not natural, it is God’s grace in you so be encouraged and give him thanks!

We do not know exactly how God will use each one of us or what kind of persecutions he will call us to. But we do know that he calls us and equips us to boldly tell others about what he has done for us. Success in being a bold witness is not measured by some dramatic story of mass conversions, revival breaking out, or experiencing martyrdom. These things are in the Lord's hands.I heard this freeing definition of success in evangelism when I was a student in High School. It has stuck with me.Success is taking the initiative to share Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and leaving the results to God. That’s it. May God grant us much success!