The Emboldened Church

When the early church faced opposition, they did not retreat or retaliate—they prayed. In Acts 4, we see a church anchored in God’s sovereignty, united in purpose, and bold in witness. Rather than asking for safety, they ask for courage, trusting that the same God who reigns over rulers empowers His people to speak with boldness. This passage reminds us that prayer is not our last resort, but our first response—and that God delights to strengthen His Church for faithful witness.

Transcript

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Hey, we are in Acts chapter four. So we just kind of, not really, but almost wrapped up a sermon series called The Church the Spirit Builds. The Lord had different plans, obviously, that He wanted me to sleep in Sunday and have a slow family worship time with my children and wife, and it was a wonderful morning, but I did miss you dearly. But we ended that sermon series, the Church of the Spirit Builds. We're jumping back into our sermon series in Acts. So the majority of our preaching here at Sacred Mission is verse by verse through books of the Bible. We had begun Acts before the Advent season last year, and we're going to be jumping back into it now. And most of this year, we're going to be working through the book of Acts. So chapter 4, verse 23. If you have a Bible or an app, we're going to be working through this verse by verse. Make sure you open to it to be able to follow along with us. And here's what I want to start with. I want to start with asking you a question. What do you pray for when following Jesus starts to cost you something? What do you pray for when following Jesus starts to cost you something? Maybe when your boss makes it clear that your faith is an obstacle to advancement. Or potentially when family starts to grow cold because you won't compromise on the truth of Scripture. Or perhaps when speaking about Jesus to your neighbor might damage the relationship you've worked so hard to build with them. What do you ask God for when following Jesus starts to cost you something? I've noticed two realities about my own heart. I have these kind of differing responses depending on my own health and situation. Either I ask God to make it easier, right? That's always probably my initial response by and large. I want him to remove the obstacles. I want him to create a path where I can follow Jesus without it actually costing me anything. My prayer is for comfort and the removal of the cost that I'm perceiving is ahead of me. Or, and this is when I'm stiff-necked and hardheaded, which depending on who you ask me or Katie, I think it's not that often, but I tend to trust that if I'm just smart enough or strong enough, I can overcome any opposition I face all by myself. I have inherently within me what it takes to get me through the difficulty in front of me. Here's what we see in Acts chapter 4, though. Actually, neither of those responses exist. They don't pray for comfort, nor do they try to push through the opposition that's in front of them. The early church, listen, they had just faced their first real persecution. Peter and John were arrested, threatened, and commanded to stop speaking about Jesus. And the authorities made it very clear. Keep preaching that name, and you will face severe consequences. So the church gathered to pray. And their prayer actually challenges everything about how you and I approach opposition in our life. You see, they didn't pray for the threat to be removed, they didn't trust in their own strength to overcome it. No, instead, they prayed a prayer rooted in God's absolute sovereignty. A prayer that asked for boldness to keep actually doing the very thing that was provoking the threats in the first place. And the reason that they could pray this way, the reason that they could petition God, resting in his sovereignty, reveals for us what it means to be boldly reliant on his plan and his purposes whenever we face threat or opposition in our life. So let's dive into the text together. Here, Peter and John, at where we're at in the book of Acts, they had just been released from custody. They were arrested after they had healed a lame beggar at the temple. And when a crowd gathered in amazement, Peter preached Christ crucified and resurrected from the dead. And then it says about 5,000 people were saved because of his bold gospel preaching. Now, this obviously got the attention of the religious authorities in their area, right? And so the very same counsel that condemned Jesus now arrests Peter and John. They interrogate them, and they demand to know by what power these apostles performed this healing. And Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, boldly proclaims Jesus again and demanded to know or proclaim Jesus, the one they crucified, the council that they were saying before, the one God raised from the dead, the only name by which people can be saved. That's the claim that Peter makes in his preaching. And the council was furious at what they were saying, but they could not deny the miracle that they had seen. So what they were preaching, what they were saying about Jesus angered them, but at the same time, they have to come face to face with the reality of this lame man who is now leaping throughout the temple. So they threaten them, they command them to stop speaking about Jesus, and then they release them. And then we pick up in verse 23. It says this When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. So they're released from custody, they immediately go to their church family. And there with their spiritual family, they desired to pray. This wasn't just about sharing news and information about what had happened. It was gathering those of whom they now belonged to, bringing the threat before the community of God's people, and to seek the Lord in prayer. And here's their response. Verse 24. I want us to take notice about how they begin their prayer. It's critical for us to see that they do not begin this prayer with panic. They don't begin the prayer by asking God to fix the problem or to remove the threat. They begin by declaring who God is. Sovereign Lord. You see that the Greek word despota, sovereign Lord, it means absolute ruler with complete authority. And they ground this idea of who God is in creation, right? They say, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. So here's the logic. If God created everything, God rules over everything. If God created everything, God rules over everything. His authority isn't just limited to spiritual matters. He doesn't just reign over the church while Caesar reigns over Rome. No, the God who spoke everything into existence has absolute authority over every corner of his creation, including the religious authorities that are threatening them, and including whatever consequences might come. And so here's the foundation of their prayer. God is absolutely sovereign over everything. I think that's a great starting place for any of us in a prayer where we're trying to pursue God and his purposes and plans for our life. Lord, you are sovereign. And then they go to this prophetic word. So let's look at verses 25 through 26. They say, Who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, Why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. So they're quoting Psalm 2, right? So they're declaring who God is, and then they're proclaiming what he has said. And they're going to Psalm 2, this messianic psalm that was written a thousand years earlier, prophesying that nations and rulers would conspire against the Lord and His anointed, his Messiah. So here's essentially what they're saying. God, you told us this would happen. Right? Opposition to Jesus and anyone who proclaims his name, it's not a surprise. It's the very plan that you've actually revealed through Scripture already. We shouldn't be caught off guard. You're not caught off guard. This shouldn't shock us. It doesn't shock you. This is what you declared would happen. And then verse 27, they kind of explain the prophetic message through the means by which they saw Jesus Christ suffered and crucified. For truly in this city they 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. So they're connecting Psalm 2 from David, written a thousand years earlier, to the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. The kings who set themselves against God anointed, they're Herod and Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles who raged, they're the Roman soldiers who crucified him, the peoples who plotted Israel at Jesus' trial, all of them gathered in this opposition to Jesus, exactly as Psalm 2 predicted. But verse 28 is where we've got to draw our attention and see what they're communicating in all of this. It's the most stunning statement of their prayer. Verse 28, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. Here's what they're saying all of that opposition, all of that conspiracy against Christ happened according to God's predetermined plan. Now, this doesn't make them innocent in what they did. This isn't a get out of jail free car, right? And we've talked about the tension that happens in the midst of God's sovereignty and human responsibility. They often seem in contradiction to one another, but they're suspended in this beautiful harmony that is so challenging and difficult for us to understand. But though God predestined this wicked action of causing Jesus to be suffered and crucified, every man who participated in it was still found guilty. They're fully responsible. But God in his infinite wisdom ordained such that their evil would accomplish his redemptive purposes. Their evil would accomplish his redemptive purposes. You see, sometimes we can think that the cross was just an accident. If Jesus would have just kept his mouth shut, if he wouldn't have been so bold in speaking out against the powers and authorities to be, he would have been safe. He would not have suffered in the way that he did and they wouldn't have killed him, right? The cross wasn't accidental. But the cross also wasn't plan B. It's not that we sinned in rebellion in the garden and then all of a sudden God had to come up with some fix-it plan to be able to make right everything that we messed up. The cross was always God's perfect plan A for the glory of his name and the redemption good of his people. Before the foundation of the world, it was predestined that the Son would suffer and die and raise from the dead, that he would purchase a people of his own possession. And so if God is sovereign even over the cross, if he orchestrated even that ultimate opposition that Jesus faced, then he's sovereign over the very things that the church is being threatened with here in Acts 4. It doesn't shock him, it doesn't surprise him, he's sovereign over it. And then we see the request. With this foundation established, what does the church ask for? Verse 29. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. I love that they're not minimizing the danger. They're honest about it. They're able to be honest about the threat that's in front of them. But they don't pray for it to stop. They don't pray for the circumstances to change and for things to become easier. No, they're actually asking for the very thing that got them into the predicament they're facing boldness in preaching the name of Jesus. The very thing that got Peter and John arrested, they want to keep doing. And so they're praying for this supernatural courage in the face of these threats. And then verse 30, while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders and perform through the name of your holy servant Jesus. They even want God to keep doing the miraculous work that authenticates the word of which they are preaching before the city square. Whatever is causing them to threaten us and throw consequences our way. Will you enable us to keep doing that very thing, the very thing that provokes both wonder in some hearts and hostility in others? And then God responds in verse 31. 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. If you've ever liked wanted God to show you that he's heard your prayer, right? There's probably no other place in scripture where it's like, oh, okay, you heard us, right? The building shook. That was God's confirmation of, hey, I've heard you, I'm with you, I'm going to empower you. And this fresh outpouring of the Spirit's presence and power happened. Now, it's arguable that many of these people were at Pentecost with the first initial falling and coming of the Spirit. Then we see as they were getting saved and baptized, they were receiving the Holy Spirit. And now they're receiving this fresh filling. This speaks to a reality that we as Christians, though we receive the Spirit of salvation, we need to pursue ongoing fillings of the Holy Spirit as we exhaust and spend ourselves in mission that we might be filled up, emboldened, empowered, ready to go back out into a culture that so desperately needs to hear the gospel of Jesus. And it's not just the apostles that are filled with the Spirit, the whole community receives this fresh empowerment. And they continue to speak the word of God with boldness, it says. That he's working all things according to his plan, that nothing catches him by surprise, you're free. You want to be free of fear. Grow in your confidence and understanding of God's sovereignty. You want to be free from anxiety, God's sovereign. You want to be free from anger, God's sovereign. You want to be free from stress, God's sovereign. You want to be free from the things that plague your mind and heart? God is sovereign. Because that's the only thing that you and I are able to rest in when we experience the threats of this world. God is sovereign. In that you're free. You're free to boldly be reliant on him rather than paralyzed by circumstances or self-reliant in your own strength when we're convinced he's sovereign. You see, the early church, they could pray for boldness instead of relief because they trusted God's sovereign plan was unfolding exactly as he intended it. Even through the threats. They didn't need circumstances to change before they could obey him. They didn't need to trust their own ability. They needed to simply rely on God's sovereign purposes and ask him for spirit-empowered boldness to stay faithful. Faithfulness is the key. We need the strength and power of the Spirit to stay faithful. Faithful in our obedience to his perfect will. But many of us we fail to boldly be reliant on God's sovereign plan. We fail to be boldly reliant on God's sovereign plan. Here's the reality: when threats come, when following Jesus costs us something, we don't typically respond with bold reliance on God's sovereignty. We do one of two things, and I would argue that both reveal we're not trusting Him. We're not trusting Him. We're not trusting that God is sovereignly orchestrating even the opposition we face for His glory and our good. So many of us, we pray for the removal of threat. This is probably a lot of our first inclination when we begin to pray in the face of threat and opposition, we pray for God to remove it. Right? To make life easier. We have this insatiable desire for comfort. Every bit of human ingenuity and advancement has been for the sake, somehow or way, of comfort. We love being comfortable, making life easier, removing the obstacles, and so we bring that even into our spiritual life. We want comfort so that we can fight. God, would you change my boss's heart so that the pressure he's applying on me would just go away? God, would you shift the culture back to a more Christian time so it would be easier to engage my neighbors? God, can you make my family stop mocking my faith and the things I confess to believe? The problem comes when this actually becomes our primary prayer. When we're really asking for a Christianity that doesn't require any sacrifice. Because you and I, this is what we want. We want the kingdom's blessing without the disciples' cost. We want all the benefits of the kingdom. We don't want to pay the cost of what it means to be a disciple. We want to follow Jesus as long as it's comfortable. And we want to be on mission as long as it doesn't disrupt our lives. But when God doesn't answer these prayers, when opposition continues or even intensifies in our life, what happens? We immediately start pulling back. We retreat into our own determined sense of comfort. We stop inviting neighbors to church because it might make things awkward. We avoid spiritual conversations at work because we don't want to ruffle the status quo. We keep quiet about what scripture says on controversial issues around those we love. And here's what eventually happens. Our lives gradually become absent of mission. A heart that loves comfort is a life absent of mission. Because you can't have both. And you will sacrifice mission for the purpose of comfort every time. Gospel mission always involves threat. It always costs us something. Jesus promised this, right? This red letter. He said himself, if they persecuted me, they will persecute you. John 15, 20. He said, Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Matthew 10, 38. And so when we make threat removal, our primary prayer, we're asking for a Christianity that Jesus never promised us. You want something less. You want something without weight and substance. Ultimately, you want the blessing of the kingdom without the cost of the disciple. Many of us with hearts like this, when we pray, we're asking for comfort over calling. And the result is a life that retreats from the very mission that Jesus gave us as his church. But others of us that are more stubborn, we push through the presence of threat. We push through the presence of threat. Here's the second response. Right? It can look different, but I would actually submit that it reveals the same lack of reliance on God's plan. And so instead of asking God to remove the threat, we ultimately trust our own strength to overcome it. I can handle this. I'm smart enough. I'm prepared enough. I can manage my way through anything that comes in front of me. I've studied apologetics. I can win this argument. I can power through this opposition. When someone challenges our faith, what do we rely on? We rely on intellectual ability to debate them into submission, to make them feel small and dumb. When obstacles arise, we we strategize in our own wisdom. When threats come, we conceive or convince ourselves that we can eliminate them if we're just strong enough, smart enough, persuasive enough. Now I want to submit that there's there's nothing wrong with being prepared or studying scripture. We should have an answer to the faith we confess. We should be able to engage culture on the issues and things that they're facing with the truth of God's word. I'm not talking about those things being bad. In fact, I would say that they are very good and a responsible, faithful thing for us to pursue. The problem comes when we're relying on those things rather than relying on God. You can't out-argue a sinner into sainthood. You can't do it. Only the Holy Spirit can take that heart of stone out of their chest and put one in them that loves God. And so when you're relying on the argument, when you're relying on the intellect, when you're relying on the persuasiveness of your speech, you are reliant on yourself. When we think that if we're just intelligent enough, we can win the debate. Our strategies can overcome our obstacles. Our strength can eliminate the threat. This is self-reliance that's just dressed up in Christianity. And the irony of it is that this approach often leads to the exact same result as the other. But that wasn't the Father's plan. The plan required a cross, not a conquest. And if that's how Jesus accomplished our redemption through reliance, independence, rather than through this self-sufficient strength, why in the world do we think that we can advance his mission any other way? You see, the early church understood this. They didn't say, hey God, we've got this covered. No, they prayed, grant to your servants to speak with boldness. Because they recognize something. They recognize that it's only the Spirit's empowerment where they be able to fulfill what they have been called to. You see, both responses. Praying for the removal of threat or trying to push through the presence of it, they reveal something about us. They reveal that we're not boldly reliant on God's sovereignty. Because we're either trying to avoid what's in front of us or we're trying to accomplish it in our own power. But Jesus perfectly shows us a better way. And not only is he our example, he walked it out faithfully on our behalf. You see, in the face of threat, Jesus relied on the Father's plan. The church prayed that all the opposition Jesus faced: Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles, Israel, they all gathered to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. Jesus knew what he was walking into. He knew the opposition. He told his disciples repeatedly that he would be betrayed, mocked, beaten, and killed. And so how did he then respond? Well, first he didn't pray for the removal of the threat in front of him. In Gethsemane, he prayed, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. And here's what I want us to see. Jesus was even able to be honest about the threat he was facing. Just like the church in Acts 4. Father, look upon their threats. Jesus is able to be honest with his Father about the threat that's in front of him. He's able to bring the weight of honesty before him. But then immediately he says, Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Matthew 26, 39. Jesus didn't negotiate for comfort. He submitted to it. He submitted to the plan, even though it meant facing the worst threat that anyone has ever faced. The full weight of God's wrath poured out on him. But not only did he not pray for the threat to be removed, he didn't eliminate the threat by his own power. Jesus had the power to call down legions of angels. He had the authority to strike down enemies with only a word. He said to Peter in Matthew 26, 53, Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? Jesus could have eliminated the threat, overpowered his opposition, won by sheer strength, but he didn't. Instead, Jesus relied completely on the sovereign plan of his father, and he faced the threat with bold obedience. Isaiah says that he set his face like flint. He willingly laid down his life. Hebrews says that he endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. Jesus didn't avoid the threat. He didn't overcome it in his own power. He trusted the Father's plan was good. That the Father's purposes would prevail, and that obedience, obedience that came even through suffering and sacrifice, was the way to ultimate victory. You see, the opposition against Jesus, it actually accomplished exactly what God intended. The religious leaders who plotted, the Roman governor who sentenced him, the soldiers who crucified him, all of them unwittingly fulfilled God's eternal purpose to redeem his people. The cross that looked like defeat, it was triumph. The death that seemed like the end was the hope of resurrection. The threat that appeared to destroy God's purposes was accomplishing them. And then three days later, when Jesus rose from the dead, it proved something. That trusting the Father's sovereign plan, even through the worst threat, leads to resurrection victory. This is what Jesus did for you. He faced the threat you deserved. He endured the opposition that your sin provoked. He bore the wrath that should have fallen on us. He didn't avoid it. He didn't overpower it. He relied on the Father's sovereign plan. And because Jesus faced the ultimate threat with this reliant boldness, now in Christ we are empowered to face every lesser threat with that same reliance. And I say lesser threat because the worst thing that could happen, separation from God, it's already been dealt with by Jesus. The very worst thing you could suffer, separation from God our Father, that's already been dealt with by Him. Jesus took that punishment. If you're in Christ, you're secure, and nothing can separate you from His love, and no suffering that you endure for His sake can compare to the glory that awaits us. Every trial, every threat, every opposition is infinitely less than what Jesus has already dealt with on our behalf. And so my prayer for us, Sacred Mission, is that we would be boldly reliant in mission. How do we live in light of this? Well, we rest in Jesus' finished work. We pray like the early church. We become boldly reliant on God's sovereignty. When threats come, and if we're living this Christian life rightly, they will. We don't pray for the removal of them. We don't trust our own strength to overcome them. Instead, we pray for boldness to stay faithful. Faithful to the mission that God has given us. In church, God answers this prayer. Now, he's not probably not going to answer it through a building that shakes, right? That would be kind of cool. If you want to know God here, like you hear me up there? He's like, Yeah. But he will fill you with his spirit. That's something we can find confidence in. He will embolden you and give you the words to speak and the courage to speak them. And so practically for us, what does this look like? Well, in our workplace, when pressure comes to stay silent, you pray for boldness to keep pointing people to Jesus in humble reliance on the Spirit. In your family, when relatives mock your devotion to Him, you pray for boldness to keep loving them with the gospel, trusting God's sovereignty in their own hearts. In your neighborhood, when being known as Christian might damage the relationships you've been working so hard to build, you pray for boldness to keep living on mission, relying on God to work through your faithful witness. And here in this church, we are going to continue face, facing an increasingly hostile culture. I am unpersuaded that culture is or will be getting better. And so for us, as we find ourselves in this hostile world, we pray for boldness to keep proclaiming Christ, keep serving our city, keep making disciples, relying completely on God's sovereign purposes to accomplish what only He can do. This is what it means to be bold in mission. We don't avoid threats, nor do we try to overpower them in our own strength, but we face them with reliant boldness, trusting that the same God who sovereignly orchestrated even the cross for our redemption is sovereignly orchestrating every opposition that we face for his glory and for our good. So when we live this way, church, as I said before, we're free. We're free. When we trust in God's sovereignty, when we have confidence in his perfect plan, man, we're free. Free from the need for comfort, free from the fear of man, free from exhausting self-reliance. We're free to be bold because he is sovereign. So, church, we don't need easier circumstances. We don't need information and knowledge to be able to navigate them, nor do we need strength to overcome them. No, this is what we need: bold reliance on God's sovereign plan and ask him for spirit empowered courage to stay faithful to his mission. Let's pray.