In light of recent events, we will not be going through the
Book of Revelation today. Instead, I have one ambition,
one simple desire for you and for myself is that we would
leave here with greater courage, with stronger boldness, with
more clarity, and with a sense of supernatural strength.
We discussed much on Wednesday night, even more on Friday.
But I want to immediately open up God's Word and see what God
has to say to us in these trying times for our nation and even
for the church. And so I invite you to turn with
me to the Book of Acts in chapter 28.
Students of the scriptures have noted in the past of a strange
ending of the Book of Acts. At first glance, it doesn't seem
to have a proper conclusion, doesn't end with a doxology.
There is no benediction. There doesn't seem to be any
final instructions of any kind. It seems to just abruptly end
with a brief comment on Paul's imprisonment in Rome while he
was under house arrest. But this unusual closing was not
due to Luke running out of parchment or this being the
result of the best that he can do under restrictive
circumstances. Like every other author of the
New Testament of the whole Bible, Luke was under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And what we find here is
intentional. And the reason why Acts seems to
be concluding in an incomplete way is because, in a sense, the
story of Acts continues to this day.
You see, if the book of Acts were primarily about Peter or
Paul, then what we find here in these final verses would be
perplexing. But if we understand the book of
Acts for what it really is, recording the success of the
spread of the gospel, then this ending is beautifully fitting.
What you have here in Acts 28 is the apostle to the Gentiles
arriving in Rome, which at the time was the center of
government and trade. And when Paul arrives to the
strategic city, we read here that the author wants to
conclude the narrative there. Nothing else is told about Paul.
What happens after this? We're going to read it in a
moment here. But again, it seems abrupt.
But it's meant to leave you and I as the readers of this account
with a sense of anticipation that this mighty evangelist and
apostle who has now finally arrived at this place will
surely be the cause of the expansion of the gospel across
the globe. And we know in church history
that it has in many ways. But more than that, it also
shows us here that the spread of the good news is ongoing.
That it doesn't stop the advancement extends beyond the
story and the discerning. I will even see that this is
also, in a sense, an invitation to every age and every believer
in those different periods of history to be a part of this
story, to actually play a part in bringing the gospel to new
places and to more people. Let me put it this way.
There is no Amen at the end of Acts because in a sense the
story goes on and we are part of it because we are the same
church that started here. We are part of the same story
that God began writing 2000 years ago.
And it's in these last verses, I believe, that we are given a
very helpful insight to show us how we as Christians could be
effective and continuing with the apostles laid down.
Let's read together in verse 30 of chapter 28 of Acts.
He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed
all who came to him. Being Paul proclaiming the
Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with
all boldness and without hindrance, I find it both
inspiring and insightful that one of the final words in the
book that speaks about the flourishing spread of the gospel
is boldness. Boldness.
Other translations might read openness or confidence, but I
want to. I want to use what the ESV
renders. What does boldness mean
according to the Bible? Well, the original word simply
means freedom and speaking unreservedness in speech.
But when you see boldness in action in the Bible, you get a
sense that it's deeper than that.
You realize that is the act of speaking the truth with
confidence, conviction, and courage, even in the face of
opposition. True boldness, by the way, never
justifies pushiness, insensitivity, aggression.
It never makes an excuse for recklessness.
Snarkiness, obnoxiousness should never be confused with rage or
profanity or being brash. There are some people who think
they're a bold when in reality they are just loud, rude, and
unwise. On the other hand, boldness,
according to the Bible, refers to speaking the truth and living
truthfully regardless of the risks because one is driven by
love for Christ and a commitment to his revealed will.
Paul had that boldness. And what we learn here at the
ending of the book of Acts is that in order for there to be
any hint of success for the spread of the gospel, you and I
must understand that boldness is a non negotiable quality.
It is an essential ingredient to the Christian and to the
ministry of the church. And that's why I want to speak
to you about it today. I want to speak to you about
being bold for Christ and my genuine prayer.
Because this message, I'll tell you out front, is going to be
simple and most likely short. But so be it.
Because my prayer behind this is that cowardly Christianity would
die. Would die in any of us who are
honest enough to say that there is a level of you being held
back to be bold with your faith, faithful with the truth,
unashamed when an opportunity is presented to you to speak out
about Christ or to present the hope of who He is.
My desire is that there would be a new level fearlessness with
our testimonies. My true desire is that with all
the uncertainty in the air, with all the fear that you and I
would be willing to walk in biblical boldness no matter who
stands before us or what the outcome of our witness may be.
That's my sincere hope, and I pray that this message will be
of some help. And together we will prayerfully
pursue this by staying in the book of Acts.
To learn more about what true boldness entails, look back
again at verse 31. See that word boldness there?
In Acts 2831, it appears a total of five times.
Throughout the book of Acts, the noun boldness appears a total of
five times in the book of Acts. And what I find interesting is
that three out of those five times it is concentrated in a
single chapter. There's one chapter where the
word boldness appears three times, and I believe that is
especially helpful for us because it brings us into focus
to seeing early in this book the beauty, the availability, and
the necessity of boldness for the church.
And I want us to go to that chapter together in Acts chapter
4. So let's turn that to a very
well known passage as we discover and rediscover perhaps
what happened to Peter and John once they were arrested after
demonstrating the healing name of Jesus and preaching the
gospel, resulting in thousands being saved.
You know this very well. Peter and John were used by God
to see a man who was crippled by the temple, to be restored to
full health and to be an object lesson of the powerful name of
the resurrected Christ, and so many were moved by it.
Instead, we find that there were others who were disturbed by it.
And so you have these religious leader that arrests them, they
stay overnight in the local jail and the next day they
interrogate them, wanting to know how it was that they were
able to perform this miracle. And so this duo give a brief yet
powerful explanation. And this is what we read after
their initial witness, verse 13. Now when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John and perceive that they were uneducated common
men, they were astonished and they recognized that they had
been with Jesus. The first thing that's vital to
comprehend about biblical boldness, please hear this, is
that boldness is not a personality trait.
You might think that would be the case if this verse read
differently, if the religious leaders saw the boldness of John
and we're astonished by it in comparison to the rest of the
apostles. You can argue that John had the
most courage for the simple reason that when others were
hiding while Christ was dying on the cross, he was the only one
who stood by him. That was dangerous.
That was risky. So if John was the only one in
view here, then you can say, well, you know, that's his
personality, that's his disposition, that's his genetic
makeup. That's just something that he
was born with that made him less afraid of dangerous situations.
But you can't say that you know why?
Because the boldness here is also attributed to Peter of all
people. The one who denied Jesus three
times, the one who cowered away, the one who shrunk from an
opportunity to stand for the Lord and to live up to his
boast. The very same Peter here, who is
fearful to speak out for Christ, is now crowned with boldness,
and that should excite any of us who have a tendency of being
hesitant to speak up, of standing by the truth, of
defending righteousness. If Peter could be bold, so can
we. But moreover, notice that the
opposition acknowledged their bravery, yes, but before that
they also recognized that they were uneducated and common men.
What a thought. What a thought.
That boldness is not reserved for the formerly trained.
It's not a reward for the scholarly.
It's not something that one taps into because they are physically
intimidating so they have the ability to muster up boldness.
Or maybe because they are outwardly beautiful and so
people are more willing to listen to what they have to say.
No, these religious leaders stood in awe as they sensed a
current of courage flowing out of these ordinary, common
looking Jews. They were stunned, which gives
us even more reason to rejoice today.
Because Christ, like Spirit, empowered otherworldly.
Boldness does not discriminate. This reality can be yours and
mine. For the same reason it was a
reality for these apostles. What does the verse say?
That they recognize that they had been with Jesus.
There was something about the influence of Christ in the lives
of these two that radiated from them in this intimidating
situation. And here's what's so wonderful.
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the living God, He does not
discriminate. And because he does not
discriminate, he shows no partiality to granting this gift
of boldness to anybody who desires it.
So no matter who you are, how you look, how much you know,
this boldness can be yours. Doesn't matter what your
vocabulary level is, it doesn't matter what your background is,
none of that matters. This can be experienced and this
can actually have an effect if you tap into it.
The second thing to underline from this one verse is how
boldness is impactful. There's something attractive
about boldness, and that's true in several ways.
It's contagious among believers, and even here we realize that it
can grip and confound sinners. Notice again in the middle of
verse 13. It says here that they were
astonished. They were astonished at the
boldness of these men. It was unexpected.
It was a surprise. And what I take from this is
that even the world takes notice when a Christian is unashamed,
unmoved, not afraid, composed when they're standing for the
faith. And boldness does not
automatically guarantee conversions, but it does contain
the power to make an impression that sparks curiosity and even
conviction. In the case of Paul with the
Thessalonians, the boldness he had played a major part in their
salvation. I want us to turn there for a
moment. Go to 1st Thessalonians chapter
2. Look here with me in verse one
as he recounts his ministry among this group of believers
who are at one point not believers, and notice what he
says about the success of his efforts there.
First Thessalonians chapter 2, beginning in verse one for you
yourselves, no brothers that are coming to you was not in vain.
Why wasn't in vain? Paul?
Well, he explains in verse 2. But though we had already
suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you
know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of
God in the midst of much conflict.
Don't you love that little phrase boldness in our God?
You're not going to find it in yourself.
I'm not going to find it in myself, not in your gift, not in
your charisma. If you want biblical boldness,
it only comes from God. We had boldness in our God.
And notice here that he attributes to the success of his
trip to Thessalonica to a God empowered courage that he and
his team demonstrated while they were there.
Why was our visit not in vain? In great part because we had
boldness in our God to preach to you the gospel even though we
were surrounded by hostility and danger and threats.
A Christianity void of boldness is vanity, is vain, doesn't
amount to anything. It robs you.
It limits your impact on the loss by convincing you that
sharing your faith should only happen when it's convenient, not
when there's conflict. Open your mouth when there's an
openness in the culture, not when there's opposition.
Please never forget that cowardice will always cost us
way more than whatever boldness may require cowardice.
We'll always be more expensive in our efforts for the Gospel
that whatever boldness may require of us.
And while we're here, why don't we just look at a couple of ways
we can prepare our hearts for this Apostolic energy to come
alive in US? I want to know.
I'm sure you do as well. Look here at verse 3 of the same
chapter. For our appeal does not spring
from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive.
But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted
with the gospel, so we speak not to please man, but to please God
who tests our hearts. People pleasing and boldness can
never coexist. Incompatible, Paul says, do you
know why we came to you with the boldness in our God?
Do you know why it was so effective?
Because we first determined long ago before we even arrived here
that we will not speak for men. We will not speak with man's
opinion in mind. We will not share with the fear
of what they have to say about us.
You see the secret to Paul tapping into this boldness and
how we going to be a success for you in your family, in your
workplace, at your school, among your peers.
You must train yourself by the grace of God and by the truths
of the Scripture to ask questions like what does God
want from me? What would make him happy out of
this? What would bring most honor to
his name? What is it that he longs from
me? Not well, not what others have
to say. And the more you are consumed
with them, the more you are preoccupied by that, the less
room there is for people to influence you and to determine
how faithful you are to the truth.
And the wonderful thing about Paul's God word ambition is that
it brought the greatest blessing to people.
When Christians are not bold, they do nobody a favor.
You don't inspire Christians and you make no impact on the lost.
You're just floating around. You're just on a lazy river
called ministry. Just just just wherever it goes,
I'm just going to go. That's useless, absolutely
useless. This man says no, no, I'll tell
you why. We're a bold We've determined to
please God with our words, with our message, with our
philosophy, but it's more than that.
Come down here to verse 5. For we never came with words of
flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed.
God is witness. So more than his heart being
free from people pleasing, Paul's heart was totally
liberated from any covetousness. This man had zero financial
ambition. Why is that relevant to
boldness? Because you couldn't buy Paul
and you can't sell anything to Paul.
He could not be influenced by anybody who could profit him.
It didn't cross his mind. He didn't manipulate and massage
his ministry message, his gospel presentation with other
ambitions and motives. I hope I can befriend this
person because they'll really contribute financially to this.
None of that. He trusted God to take care of
him. He really believed.
If I'm faithful to the truth, God will take care of my
ministry. Not to play games.
Don't have to play Kate, don't have to dilute anything.
Don't have to wonder who what soul is soul is.
Are they going to be there Sunday?
I'm just going to preach a very strong word.
I don't want to step on their toe.
None of that silliness with Paul.
Completely consumed with a faith that God will take care of me.
Money has a way of muzzling Christians and not just
Christians. Pastors, God help us.
If you're doing this thing for money, get out of the ministry.
Has nothing to do with money. You really believe God, then
preach the Word and let him take care of you.
You see, the freer one is from the love of praise and the
desire for material grant gain, the bolder we become.
You can't hold on to financial, material, comfort, luxury,
pursuing that, securing, that nourishing that.
You can't hold on to an addiction to people's opinions
about you and expect to be a bold Christian at the same time.
Choose one or the other, But also I'll tell you why I was
bold. I, I determined to speak for God
and I determined to do so at any cost.
This is just a couple of thoughts from Acts 413, but you
know what question I had the other day?
What did they see that concluded they were bold?
What is it that came out of these two in Acts chapter 4 that
proved that they had courage? And I want you to see it with me
because we find it in the verses proceeding.
Look back here in Acts 4 and look here at verse 7.
This is the following day after they were arrested.
And it says here. And when they had set them in
the midst, they inquired, by what power or by what name did
you do this? Then Peter Phil of the Holy
Spirit said to them, Rulers of the people and elders, here's
one major property for boldness and a boldness.
Boldness blinds you from your audience.
You don't see what other men would see.
I'm talking about a good kind of blindness.
You're not affected by who's standing before you.
You're not influenced by the presence of some influential
figure or powerful man. Notice here that the first thing
that they say is they acknowledge who these men were
rulers of the people and elders, and they're about to preach the
raw gospel in their presence. What boldness does is strip away
the fear of man. What boldness does is help you
perceive man the way God does. See, these are rulers.
These are these are big names in Jerusalem.
And yet, because these men were filled with the Holy Spirit and
as a result driven with boldness, as the context shows,
they just saw them as sinners who are under the wrath of God
and need to be saved. So the natural they were rulers,
sure, but in the spiritual they were in desperate need of the
truth. Boldness does that when it's
given by the Holy Spirit. It blinds you from the faces,
the reactions, the potential ramifications of of those who
can do something about you because of what you stand for.
But not only that, look here. What happens next in verse 9 he
continues, if we were being examined today concerning a good
deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been
healed. Let it be known to all of you
and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead by
him, this man is standing before you.
Well, it's not only does this boldness blind you to your
audience, but boldness caused you to speak unapologetically
and unambiguously about sin. You see what happens here?
He addresses them and he confronts them about their
crime. And he doesn't speak in
generalities. Whom you crucified.
When a preacher, when a Christian is really filled with
spirit empowered boldness, They don't tiptoe around
controversial air quotes issues. They don't they call it as it is
when when they preach, they don't just talk about the wrong
that we have all done, how we all have just lost our way.
Yeah, that's a biblical phrase. But you also find that the Bible
lists sins, puts a language to these things.
And so with a holy love but also with a holy boldness, you can
expect somebody who is possessed with this force to actually
addressed things in a way that is meant to address people
personally. Is there wisdom in how we do
this? Absolutely.
I hope you hear this as principles and not as just a
black and white blueprint, but so much of what we hear today
just dances around the issues. So much of what we hear today is
first introduced with so many apologies from the pulpit, as
though what we're saying we don't really want to say, but we
have to say it because we don't want to get in trouble by the
actual Christians in the church. It's just powerless.
It really is. Boldness calls out sin.
Boldness can see the current issues in society and say it's
evil. That's wrong.
That's from hell. Finally, look at verse 11.
This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders,
which has become the cornerstone, and there is
salvation and no one else, for there is no other name under
heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
Boldness will make you unashamed to publicly testify the mission
and person of Christ. A lot of people have no issue
talking about God higher power. That's not what Paul, or rather
Peter is preaching like. He brings up the name of Jesus.
He brings up the exclusivity of his mission, of his cross, and
he doesn't flinch doing it. Boldness will compel you to
speak about Christ without quivering.
This is what they saw. They saw that they were unfazed
by these big names who had real abilities.
I mean, they just arrested them. You know, these two apostles,
Stoic, I'm sure. Respectful, absolutely.
But strong, direct, clear, unafraid, unashamed.
More can be said about this, but we've only touched on the first
time boldness appears in this chapter.
Let's look at the two other times.
Look here at the end of this chapter in verse 29 and Acts
429. This is after the two apostles
were released being threatened and warned never to speak and
teach about the name of Jesus. So they go to their friends and
they have a prayer meeting and this is what we read near the
end of their prayer in Acts 429. 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. There were the two other times.
And I want to use this text to end with this thought.
How do we get it? How do we get this boldness?
And I want to use the letter A to mention at least four ways.
The first is to assemble with God's people.
What's the context of this prayer?
Again, it begins back in verse 23.
Peter and John were released. They went to their friends and
reported all that the chief priests and elder said to them.
God designed Christian community.
God designed Christian relationships to be the fuel
station for our courage. Christ sent them out two by
twos. Clearly there is something there
about that companionship that made the more effective in their
gospel witness. And He gives us more than just
instruction how to go out to the loss.
He shows us even here by way of example, that there is genuine
boldness that can be experienced in community when you gather
with God's people. Why?
Because testimonies are there. Encouragement is there.
Truth is championed there. Think about Paul with the
Philippians. You know this very well.
A lot of this is just reminders for us.
But in Philippians 114, he says, and most of the brothers haven't
become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more
bold to speak the word without fear.
They're much more bold now because of my imprisonment.
You would think it would be the opposite.
But again, there's something attractive about boldness, and
all it takes is one person to have it and to pay a price for
it, to set off a movement to take people to a new level in
their faith, to shake off the cobwebs of their own
complacency. If Paul was willing to go to
prison, what are we doing here? If Paul thinks it's worth it to
die for Christ, then let it be true of us.
So God has given us community. For our own personal courage, we
assemble regularly, and we need to do that more and more in
these times. But more than that, we abide.
We abide in God's Word. Notice that in the middle of
their prayer back in verse 24, what they do says here in verse
24. 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 people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set
themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the
Lord and against his anointed. Here they are in need of a fresh
dose of of courage and boldness and what do they do?
They quote scripture, they bring to mind God's sovereignty
revealed in His Word. They bring to mind God's
Providence. They bring to mind His
character, what He's done in history, how what He said in His
Word relates to their present time.
You want to nurture boldness, feed on the truth, familiarize
yourself with stories. I mean, I was ready to jump when
Pastor Ben opened up about James and John and Steven and how it
how about how in every case their martyrdom made way for the
word of God to spread. I was ready to say Amen and just
go something about the truth. It has power.
You can't rely on your emotions. Even with this recent tragedy in
our nation, don't expect to stay stirred 2 weeks from now the way
you're stirred now. You need to abide in God's Word.
You need to remind yourself of eternal truth.
Events will come and go and God uses them.
But if you want to remain attached to this heavenly force,
you need to stay attached to God's Word.
Thirdly, ask, ask, and ask again.
Boldness is not designed to be permanent.
It's not like you get it and you have it forever.
It is subject to vacillation. It is subject to being taken
from you. Boldness yesterday may not be
there tomorrow, may not be there even now.
So these same men who earlier in acts were filled with the Holy
Spirit spoke boldly are now and the chapter hasn't even ended
yet. The story of of this part of the
Scripture hasn't even concluded yet.
And yet they find themselves yet again coming before God and
saying, oh Lord, fill us again. Give us more of this.
It wasn't enough that we had it when we had that meeting with
you. We need it now as we move
forward, and God graciously grants it.
Pray for it in the morning when you wake up.
Pray for it as you are stepping into that meeting.
Pray for it before you go to that doctor's appointment.
Pray for the wisdom to know what to say.
Pray for whether you should say anything at all.
Pray always, finally, act, act. There's no good and asking for
it if you're not prepared to do something with it.
What does it say here at the end of verse 30 of Acts 4 and
continue to speak the Word of God with boldness.
Is there anything in your mind or in mind that is strategic
with the gospel? Let this be a revival in each of
us to actually be mindful of opening our mouths in different
settings or maybe with people who we've known for some time
and yet they don't know that we're actually born again
followers of Christ. Sometimes we wait for a
sensation, maybe even what we find here in this testimony that
the walls would shake. OK, we got boldness, now we can
do something. And what you find regularly
throughout Acts is that boldness accompanies the act of stepping
out, that it almost meets you while you are ready to do
something. And so you might sweat a bit.
You might not know how you're going to articulate yourself.
You might not know how this is going to flow.
One of the beauties of this boldness is that it tends to
surprise you as much as it might surprise someone else.
Maybe you've been there where you you're almost beside
yourself saying what? What was that?
Or you leave a conversation with somebody over the stranger at
the grocery store, whatever the case may be.
And you think, where did that scripture come from?
I didn't. I memorized that years ago.
I don't remember the last time I read that chapter.
Where did that come from? You have to be willing to act.
I'll end it here.
We can't rely on events, surely, but we have to be wise and make
the best use of time for the days are evil.
Now's not the time to be worried about the America that your kids
are going to grow up in. Now is not the time to be overly
consumed by media and news to the point that you're unable to
hear God in His Word. Now is not the time to allow
your emotions to just make you angry and sit there.
Now is the time to lift your head, assemble with God's
people, abide in His Word, ask for boldness, and even ask God,
Lord, where do you want me to act?
This is a wonderful opportunity for the church to make an
impact, but it can't happen without boldness.
If you're a preacher here, an aspiring minister, I know
education is important, theological training is good.
But what I've discovered in my short time of ministry is that
you can have letters beside your name and be a coward.
PH DS Do nothing if you're not willing to preach the whole
counsel of God. And so May God empower pastors.
And more than that, May God do something in his people.
So the world at this time would be astonished at the boldness of
the church. Father, we ask, though so much
more could be said, we take this simple truth to be bold.
And so though we do what we just learned in Your Word, we ask
for, we ask for, we ask for it. God, please.
We need boldness in our God. We need boldness from the Holy
Spirit. And Lord of these great apostles
sought it more than once. Surely we are in need to
perpetually pray so Lord, we don't make excuses with our
personalities. And Lord, we even choose today,
in a fresh way to confess that we love Your truth more than our
own lives. Show us what to do in this hour.
But Lord, don't leave us to ourselves.
Give us true boldness made in fact, the church may make an
impression on the lost, and may you be glorified and all in
Jesus name we pray. Amen.