For Boldness in Speaking the Word

All right, well good morning and welcome Chapel family, we are glad that you're here joining us this morning as we open God's word as we are wrapping up our sermon series called, "Built on Prayer" this Morning. I'm sure you know that this past Tuesday, October 31st was Halloween, right? It comes around every year, every October 31st, Halloween. But for Protestant believers in churches, the church calendar knows it as a different day. It knows it as Reformation Day, Reformation Day. It's the date that an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the door of the church in Wittenberg in Germany. And that was 560 years ago in the year 1517. That document helped set off something, it helped set fire to something that we know as the Reformation. The Reformation was a movement that challenged the medieval Catholic church and the Pope himself and brought people back to a right understanding of scripture. In fact, it's the movement that put scripture in people's common language, that we have the Bible in English today in large part to the Reformation. And it brought people back to the right understanding that we are only saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone according to the scriptures alone, to the glory of God alone. And it brought us back to that right understanding, but Martin Luther, he kept studying his Bible and writing more against the church and the things that were wrong in the church and against the Pope according to scripture. And it was dangerous because what Luther was doing was he was writing against some of the most powerful people in Europe at that time. He was eventually called to a heresy trial that we know as the diet of worms, it sounds really gross, I know, he wasn't eating worms, it was a heresy trial in the city of worms. But he was eventually called to this heresy trial that could have him excommunicated from the church and possibly even burned at the stake. There was a lot at stake here for Martin Luther. But after considering whether he should recant for this heresy trial or whether he should stand firm, he stood before the room and he said, "I am bound by the scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot, and I will not recant anything since it is neither safe nor right to go against my conscience. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God." And we often remember Luther's boldness and the bold stance that he took that not many other people at the time were taking, really no one else at the time was taking the stance. But he stood boldly because he knew that people needed that hear the word of God. He stood boldly because he knew that salvation was found in the words of scripture alone. He stood boldly because he knew that it was a message that needed to go out to every man, woman, and child. But he was always clear where that boldness came from. It wasn't a boldness that came up that he, mustered up in his own strength, it was a boldness that came through prayer. Luther spoke all the time about prayer. In fact, he said that he would pray three hours a day unless he was really busy that day, then he would pray for four, that's what he said. Now, you might not have time to pray for three or four hours a day like Luther did, but it goes to show that we are to go before the Lord in prayer, and when we do, he answers. And he emboldens his people to go out and speak His word. Today we're wrapping up this sermon series called Built on Prayer, and we're gonna be talking about the church is built on prayer for boldness in speaking the word. The church is built on prayer for boldness in speaking the word. Now over the past few weeks, we've been marching forward in the book of Acts, right? And we've been looking at when the church would pray and what we've seen is that when the church would pray, the gospel would go out further. And when the church would pray, the number of believers would increase. And when the church would pray, the church would grow because more people were coming to believe in Jesus Christ. This week we're gonna go back a little bit, we're gonna get a little bit out of chronological order as we wrap up our series. And we're gonna go back and see the prayer of the church that really kind of got things moving. We're gonna be in Acts chapter 4:23-31 today. Now at this point, at this point, the Christian movement is still mostly contained to Jerusalem, okay? It's still mostly contained to Jerusalem, Stephen has not been stoned yet, and the gospel did not go out to Judea and Samaria when the believers were scattered because of that yet, that hasn't happened. James has not been martyred yet, Saul has not become Paul yet, in fact, he's not even been mentioned, he's not even in the story yet. And the situation we're coming into today is that Peter and John have just healed a man right outside of the temple. And that's all good and everything, and people would love that, the problem is they healed him in the name of Jesus. And the Jewish leaders got mad about it and they arrested Peter and John and they threw them in prison. And they threaten to not, they threaten them to not ever speak the name of Jesus again. But Peter and John had a similar reply to Martin Luther, and I have to think Luther probably had this in mind as he took his stand. Look at what they say in verses 19 and 20 just before our passage today. But Peter and John replied, which is right in God's eyes; to listen to you or to him? You be the judges. As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. Friends, the church has a message and it's the gospel of Jesus. The church has a message that many do not find acceptable. And it's a message that many people actually hate it, many people don't wanna hear it. There are those who think it's stupid, that it's idiotic that anybody would believe in this message. And in general, it just goes against the ways and the thinking of the world. And that can cause us to be timid about sharing it sometimes, can't it? If we're being honest, it can cause us to be a little bit timid about sharing it sometimes. But it's a message that each and every person needs to hear for salvation and for eternal life. That's why we talk about every man, woman, and child needs to hear and see the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a message that each and every person needs because each and every person is a sinner separated from God, that's how we are born. But we come into life and reconciliation with God by Jesus Christ alone. And so we are tasked with going and sharing that message. It's a message that Jesus sent us out with to make disciples. And it's a message that we need boldness to speak. And so I want us to see today that we need to ask God for boldness to speak his word. We need to ask God for boldness to speak his word. So let's go ahead and read Acts 4:23-31 and see how the early church prayed for that. On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our Father David. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? And kings of the earth rise up and rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one,." Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will decided beforehand should happen. Now Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. I just wanna make four observations today. As we go through this text, I want us to make four observations about the way that the church here in Acts chapter four prayed. Here's the first observation that I can't help but see, here's the first one. They prayed first, they prayed first. I have four young daughters at home, ages, 10, 8, 5, almost six, and two, okay? Four young daughters. And I've come to learn that their decision on whether they come to me for something first or they go to mom for something first is depending on what it is that they need or want. If they're crying because they're hurt, they often come to dad first 'cause dad can fix anything, right? I mean, that's the way it is. If they're crying because they didn't get something they want, they go to mom first 'cause dad doesn't care, right? I'm just being honest. If they, I mean, I care about them, I just don't care that they didn't get what they want, you know? That's all. If they want real lunch or dinner, they go to mom first. If they want a candy bar, they come to dad first, right? Because dad's awesome. And mom can be too sometimes, but dad is more. So, if they want do arts and crafts, they go to mom first 'cause dad has nothing for them in that realm. But if they need help carrying something, they come to dad first. And if they want something that costs money, they go to grandma and grandpa 'cause we ain't buying it for them. Only on every other birthday, I'm just joking. What I've come to realize is that who they go to first shows who they're really dependent on and it shows that they know it. The question for us as believers is who do we turn to first? Or maybe I should ask, what do we turn to first? Because who or what we turn to first shows who or what we are really dependent on. The answer should be that we turn to the sovereign God, the maker of heaven and earth and the sea and everything in it, we should turn to him, the God that we worship, the God who we call Father, the almighty maker of heaven and earth, that's who we should turn to first. But the question is, do we? Is that who we turn to first? It says in verse 23 that Peter and John went back and told them all the chief priests and elders had said to them, and then in verse 24, look at what it says, "When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God." It's a beautiful thing when the church prays and it's a beautiful thing when the church prays together. But it is a most beautiful thing when the church turns to prayer first because it shows who the church is truly dependent on. It shows where the true power of the church lies. I wonder what our first response is when people stand against Jesus. I wonder what our first response is when people stand against us or they stand against the Bible or they call us names or they say whatever they may say about us, I wonder what our first response is. Is it outrage and anger? Is it claiming your rights? Is it turning to lawmakers to try to fix the problem for you? Whatever it may be, whether those things are good or bad, none of them should be our first response. None of them should be what we turn to first because none of them are the ultimate resource of the church. And none of them should be what we are dependent on. They may be good things, some of 'em, they may be useful things, but they are not what we are dependent on because none of them hold the power that the Almighty God holds in his hands. And it is this almighty God who is our Father. But guess what? Whatever you turn to first reveals what you're truly dependent on. So what is it for you? I have to admit that I would be disingenuous if I stood up here and let you think that I always turn to prayer first, I would be deceitful if I let you walk away thinking that that's what I do because the honest truth is I have to relearn the lesson of prayer all the time. The honest truth is I find myself sometimes turning to other things first. And when I do, that's when the spirit inside of me is able to show me, "Hey, you are depending on something else other than me right now." Many times I have to remember the hard way that prayer is where I should turn to first rather than my own power or my own attempts to do things or fix things for myself. But here's the good news about that, is that the grace of God is active and alive in the life of every believer. And so even when we find ourselves turning to something or someone else first, the spirit of God in us can show us that. And the grace of God comes in and picks us up and moves us forward even when we fail. And the spirit of God continues to teach us even when we get it wrong. Praise God for that, right? Praise God for that. But we need to remember that the ultimate resource of the church is the power of God through the Holy Spirit who lives in us. And we can come to him in prayer and ask him to be at work in us. The church in Acts learned this lesson because they had to. They didn't have any resources to turn to, they didn't have any rights. They didn't have any lawmakers who cared about them, they didn't have any resources of any kind. We have resources galore in the American church and it can be so tempting for us to turn to our resources first rather than to God. And all those things, they're good things when we use them and we invest them in the kingdom, but they are not where the power of the kingdom lies. The power of the kingdom lies with the king. That's where the power of the kingdom lies. And he invites us to turn to him in dependent prayer, turning to him in prayer that depends on his power. And if we wanna be a church who wants to see God move, then we should pray first, we should pray first. The early church prayed first, but secondly, they prayed scripture, they prayed scripture. In verses 25 and 26, they turned to scripture for their prayer. I'm sure you know that sometimes it can be hard to know what to pray, right? If you've been praying for any amount of time in your life, I'm sure you've experienced this at some point or another, right? Sometimes you may just not have the words, sometimes you may wonder like, is it right for me to pray for this thing or is it more right for me to pray for that thing? We go through things like this, but here's the deal, is that praying with an open Bible is always a good idea. Praying with your Bible open, looking at scripture, what it says and praying it back to God is always a fantastic idea. It's a great resource that God has given us, He has told us what he wants and he has told us what he wants from us, He has given us promises and we can pray those things back to Him. It's kinda like when you have something big happen in your life, right? Maybe you have a major surgery or maybe you have a baby or something like that, something big happens in your life and people tell you, let us know if you need anything, right? Let us know if you need anything. And you're kinda like, I don't really know what I need. Especially if this is your first child or or your first major surgery or whatever, you don't really know what you need and you're just kinda like, yeah, okay, I'll do that, that's fine. But isn't it so much better when people come to you and say, "Hey, you're gonna need food, just tell me when you want me to bring it by. Hey, you're gonna need a ride home from the hospital, just tell me when you want me to pick you up. Hey, you are gonna need Netflix, don't let me know when you need my password," okay? During, during recovery. And the cool thing about scripture is that even when we don't know what we need, God tells us what we need. And he says, let me know when you're ready to ask for it. Come to me, He invites us in. He says, come to me in prayer and I will give it. The scripture that they are praying here is Psalm 2 verses one and two. And these verses tell us that many from all the nations, from all over the world will stand against God's anointed, that's Jesus. But the Psalm assures that God is in control, that God's plan is not thwarted, that God's plan is not lost, but all these things are happening according to plan. And by the end of that Psalm, it actually gives a warning to all who stand against Jesus. And it tells of the victory of Jesus and it invites all to come and trust in him. In verses 27 and 28, they're saying, "we have seen your plan, we've seen it laid out in scripture, we've seen it being fulfilled with Herod and Pontius Pilate and these leaders who are standing against us." And because of scripture, we know today that the plan of God is for people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. For there to be people from each and every one of them who will come and worship the Lord, and the plan is for that to happen through his people being his witnesses, through his people going boldly into hard places. For his people, boldly speaking truth to others, for his people boldly sharing the gospel. Now, a big part of this is that you have to know scripture. To be able to pray scripture, you have to know scripture and what I wanna say is that I don't want you to just know scripture, I want you to be filled with scripture. Because when you are filled with scripture, then that's when scripture starts to come out. When you are filled with scripture, scripture begins to come out of you both in the way you live in obedience to scripture, but also in your words, in conversations, in prayer, whatever it may be, it starts to come out in every way when you fill up on it. Because here's the truth I want you to remember, go ahead and write this one down, it's highly philosophical, it might be hard to remember, okay? Whatever you fill yourself up with, that's what you're full of. Difficult concept, right? You probably never would've thought of that without me telling you, I know, I know, I'm here to help you. Whatever you fill yourself up with, that's what you're full of. If you fill a glass up with water, then it's gonna be full of water, thank you, you two. If you fill up a gas can with gas, it's gonna be full of gas, there you go. And if you take that glass of water and you pour it out, you wouldn't expect that Pepsi is gonna come out of it, right? And that would be gross anyway if it did, because nobody likes Pepsi, right? Thank you. I knew you would like that one because nobody likes Pepsi, I know. If you fill yourself up with scripture, scripture is going to begin to come out of you. If you fill yourself up with scripture, then the grace of God is gonna begin to come out of you. If you fill up yourself with scripture, then the promises of God that are found there are going to begin to come out of you. If you fill yourself up with scripture, the very words of God that are found in scripture, they're going to become, they're gonna begin to come out of you, and your heart will be conformed to the heart of the Lord and your mind will be renewed by his word. And you'll start to find yourself praying in a different way. You'll start to find yourself praying not for the things that are just gonna make you comfortable, but you're gonna start to find yourself praying for help in obeying the Lord. You're gonna find yourself beginning to pray the promises of God and asking him to bring them to complete fruition. And if we wanna be a church who wants to see God move, friends, we need to know scripture so that we can pray scripture. The early church, they prayed first and the early church prayed scripture. But third, they prayed for the power of God. They prayed for the power of God. Notice that in verse 29, they're speaking to the all powerful, the sovereign God who created all things simply by speaking them into being, but they still expect, and they still know that the way he's going to work and carry out his plan of seeing the gospel to go out into all the world, the way that he's going to carry out his plan of bringing people from every tribe, tongue, and nation from all over the world to know him, the way he's going to be working in the world is going to be through his people. They understand that God is sovereign and in his sovereignty, he has chosen to use his people to bring about his means by working through them, by working his power through them. But it's not, we have to understand it's not by our power. It's not by our own abilities, it's not by our talents, it's not by our anything, it is only by his power working through them. They pray, enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. So they pray for God's power to help them speak the word with great boldness. I think sometimes we look at the early church and and we look at them like superheroes because of the boldness that they lived with, the boldness that they spoke with, even when they faced the arena being torn apart by lions, when they faced crucifixion, when they faced imprisonment and they stood firm and they spoke boldly. And sometimes, we can tend to think of them like superheroes. And I think we should admire them because they chose to walk in those things and they chose to follow the Lord even when it meant the end of their life, usually by very painful means. But they, we have to remember that they were dependent on the power of God bought for them by the blood of Christ to stand boldly. It was God's power that strengthened them to be able to do that, and church, don't you know that the power that lived in the early church is still the same power that lives in the church today? And it's the same spirit that filled the early church that still fills the church today. And don't you know that it is the same God who invited the early church to pray for his power to work through them? It's the same God that still invites his church to pray today. But will you depend on him? Will we depend on God's power working through us? Will we depend on God through prayer? The church knew they needed to be bold in speaking the word, but they also knew that they needed the power of God in order to be strengthened and emboldened to speak the word to others. And then in verse 30, they prayed for God's power to be shown in visible ways. But it's the last part of the sentence that's the big issue, look at the end of verse 29, it says that they wanted these things to happen through the name of your holy servant Jesus. All of this started not just because John and Peter healed someone, it's because they healed someone in the name of Jesus. That's where the problem was. When the authorities arrested them, look at what it said back in verse seven. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them, by what power or what name did you do this? And then after the trial and before they were released, look at what it says in verse 18, "Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus." That's where the problem was. It was that they were speaking and doing things in the name of Jesus. And the church is praying, Lord, help us to not hold back. Help us to not hold back in showing the power of Jesus. Help us to not hold back in speaking and acting in the name of Jesus, even when other people are mad about it, help us, Lord, give us boldness to continue on. Church, we need to be praying for the power of God to be working in us and to be working through us because to walk the Christian walk, to live Christ-like lives, it only happens by the power of the spirit living in us. And to see others, to make disciples of others, it only happens by the power of the Holy Spirit, working through us and working in them. We need to be praying because we are well resourced here in America. And we are people who like to do things for ourselves and show others that we can do things for ourselves and in our own power. But the truth is we simply don't have the power in and of ourselves to live Christ-like lives. And we don't have the power in and of ourselves to make disciples. Those are things that only happen by the power of God. And guess what? He invites us to come to him and ask him for that power. He invites us to come to him and ask him for that power. And he sends us out with his Holy Spirit and he tells us, depend on me. Look at what John 15:5 says. This is Jesus speaking, He says, "I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit." But apart from me, you can do nothing, you can do nothing. Friends, when we seek the Lord in prayer and we depend on him, he gives us what we need. When we seek the Lord for his power and we depend on him for power rather than depending in the stuff we have or in and of ourselves or the talented people around us or whatever it may be, when we depend on the power of God, he grants us that prayer, he invites us into do it. If we wanna see, if we wanna be a church that sees God moving through us, then we need to pray for the power of God. But here's our last observation from this text. They prayed and God answered, they prayed and God answered. Verse 31, take a look. After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. Friends, God doesn't always shake buildings, but he does always show up when his people depend on him. He might not physically shake a building, I mean he may, but he may not physically shake a building, but when his people depend on him, he shakes us and he shakes us in a way that we can go before others and be unshaken so that we can speak of him confidently and boldly. And he doesn't just do it for church leaders, he doesn't just do it for people speaking from the platform, he doesn't just do it for certain individuals, look at what it said in verse 31, "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly." God uses all of his people to complete his mission. He uses all of his people to make the gospel known. And when we seek him in dependent prayer, he answers. The question for us is, do you trust that he will do the same for us today? That if we actually go before him in dependent prayer, I don't mean prayer that's just like tagged on to the end of whatever we do, we go, we do all our things and then at the end, we just kind of send it off with a prayer 'cause we know we're supposed to. I'm talking about true dependent prayer. When we do that, God uses his people. Do you believe that? Because we still had the same mission to go and make disciples of all nations. We are still sent out to speak to our neighbors and to speak to our coworkers and our family members and our friends, we are still called to go out into the hard places as the church and make the gospel known. And we can still only possibly fulfill that mission by God's power. It's the only way we can do it. And so we can go to him in prayer and we can trust that he will fulfill that prayer because each and every promise that God has given, he has bought and he has purchased it by the blood of Jesus Christ. All of the promises are yes in him. And when Jesus died, he purchased the right for us to go before the Father, to go before the throne of grace and to ask him for boldness to ask him for the power to do what he has called us to do. And friends, I wanna let you know, Jesus Christ died not only for all those who have already believed, but all those who will. He has purchased people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. He has purchased people from all over Buffalo, He has purchased people from all over Getzville, from Amherst, from North Tonawanda and Tonawanda, in Kenmore and West Seneca and wherever else, he has purchased people by the blood of Christ. And when one day we are standing around the throne and we are looking at the faces of people from all around our city and we're looking at the faces of people from every tribe, tongue and nation dressed in white, singing the praises of God, we will know that every single one of them is there because they were purchased by the blood of Christ, and he sent his church out in power to speak his word. And we'll be clothed in white because he has paid the penalty of our sin. And he has washed us clean by his blood and he has given us salvation. As the old hymn says, from heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride. With his own blood, he bought her and for her life, he died. He came and sought the lost. He came to seek and save the lost and Friends, it's because he came that we go. It's because he came that we go. He came to purchase and we go to witness. He came in boldness to rescue, and we go in boldness to tell of what he has done. And he has promised us that he will be with us even to the end of the age as we go out and we make disciples. So let's be a church who trust in those promises. Let's be a church who sees that Christ came for people from all over the city and all over the world. And let's be a church who prays first and who walks in obedient dependence on the Lord. As we've done throughout this whole sermon series, we're gonna close with a few prayer prompts that I'm gonna lead us through. I'm gonna ask you to go ahead and bow your head and close your eyes, and I'm gonna give you a few prompts. I'm not going to give you the exact words to say, but I'll just give you what we are going to be praying about as we lift up our prayers to our great God. First, let's pray that God would teach us to depend on him above anything else. Second, let's pray that God would give us boldness to speak the truth of the gospel in any situation. Third, let's pray that God would strengthen our brothers and sisters in the persecuted church around the world to speak boldly. And last, let's pray that the mission would be completed and that Jesus would return soon. Sovereign Lord, maker of heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, we come to you humbly by the blood of your son Jesus. And we ask you, Lord, that you would give us the boldness to speak, the boldness to speak your word, that we would see the word increase, that we would see the gospel go out. Lord, as I think about people in this city who don't know that you have come and died to rescue sinners, when I think of people all over the world who have little to no access to the gospel, when I think of your glory that deserves to be known all over the earth, Lord, I'm reminded that it will only get there by your power working in your people. It's the way you've chosen to work, Lord, and we ask that you would do it. We ask that you would do it in us. Lord, we pray that you would strengthen your church, strengthen our brothers and sisters especially in the persecuted church, who are persecuted for speaking just like we see here in Acts four. I pray that you would help them to continue to speak boldly, Lord, so that more may know you. And God, we prayed that the mission would be completed, that people from every tribe, tongue, and nation would come to know you. And Lord, we pray, as the church has prayed for 2000 years, Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus, come. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, Amen.