Real Prayers for Real LifePart 7 of 9
The Apostles – Boldness (Acts 4)
Transcript
Skip the transcript0:00 Good afternoon everybody. Thank you to Heather and the band for leading us and of course thank you to Andy for his kind words of encouragement and exhortation to not be boring. So I'll do my best. We are in our summer series, Real Prayers for Real Lives. This is installment #7, if you've been counting. Hopefully, if you've been away, had the blessing of being away on some holidays, you've been able to keep up and catch up while you've been away. Today we are looking at the believer's prayer for boldness in Acts chapter 4. So if you're turning or swiping or clicking there, we'll be starting in verse 23 in a moment or two.
0:49 The immediate context of this prayer that we're going to look at today is the burgeoning early church which has gone from 120 scared, timid believers locked away in the upper room to 3,000 converts on the day of Pentecost to actually the start then of chapter 4, Luke records that there were 5,000 men believers at that stage. So add on to that woman children, what could we say, 10, 15,000 maybe, people who have come to know Jesus as Lord and Saviour in very short space of time. The story that we're going to pick up actually starts, the episode starts, so to speak, at the beginning of chapter 3. And it's the well-known story of when the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus, through Peter, heals a man who had been sitting at the temple gate for years and years. And Peter says to him, silver and gold have I none but that which I have I give thee in the name of Jesus Christ. And all of you hopefully are now singing that children's song in your head. May it be stuck there for the rest of the day. You're welcome.
2:04 And he gets up and he's walking and leaping and praising God. And that attracts a bit of a crowd. It creates a bit of a ruckus. And it gives Peter the opportunity to again deliver the gospel to a huge crowd in Solomon's porch. But it gets interrupted. The priests, the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees come along and they arrest Peter and John and they put them in custody until the next day. In the morning, they're interrogated and then they're released and they're strictly forbidden to speak in Jesus' name and threatened with severe consequences if they do. And that's where we will pick up the story in chapter 4, verse 23.
2:53 It says, 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 people 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. This is the only prayer in the series that we've been looking at this summer where it is not attributed to an individual, but to a group of people who are unified in purpose.
4:31 This prayer was not of an individual with a problem, a difficulty or a request, but it was a prayer of a body of believers with a mission and a purpose. And as we study this together today, there's a few things I want to do. First, I want to spend a few moments reflecting on the cultural context that these believers were in 1st century Roman Empire. And actually some of the things that are strikingly similar to where we are. Then we're going to step through the prayer. There's 4 simple observations that I want to share with you about the prayer. I'll give you a sneak preview on those. They anchor themselves in who God is.
5:20 They acknowledge difficulty, but they're not consumed by it. They ask for boldness, not relief. And then they act. whenever God responds. And then we'll finish by spending a little time reflecting on how we can apply this, yes, to ourselves as individuals, but maybe also more so as a collective body. And when I say apply it, I don't mean that it's a formula to follow, but it is to be an inspiration to encourage us, challenge us, motivate us, and dare I say, even get a little bit excited about. Let's pray before we go any further. Lord, we thank you for your word.
6:09 Lord, I pray that in these moments, as we study it together, that you would give us open ears and open hearts to hear not from me, Lord, but from you, Lord. I pray that, Lord, all that we would hear today would be your words and your heart. Holy Spirit, we give you rule and reign and dominion in this place. We invite you to have preeminence and to lead and guide us. May all of us be challenged and encouraged by what you have to say to us today. And I pray that you would give us soft hearts to be responsive and obedient to it.
6:47 In Jesus' name, amen. Our passage today takes place in a world which on the surface looks very different to ours. The things we take for granted from the basics of the usually clean water which comes out of our taps to our electricity, cars, medicine, democracy, media, education, right up to smartphones and let's not even chat about AI. All of these things would seem quasi-miraculous to the 1st century observer. We have comforts, capabilities and freedoms that they simply could not have imagined. Especially the freedom to meet like this. In 2,000 years, the machinery of the world has changed completely. However, I would argue that the spiritual landscape may actually be more familiar than we think.
7:46 The early church was birthed in a pagan empire, a culture that was deeply religious and spiritual, but not submitted to the living God. There were many gods, many temples, many philosophies, many loyalties, many ways to explain life. Fast forward to our context. I'm going to use a lot of quotation marks here. Western culture was for a long time perceived as broadly Christian. Not truly converted, not always righteous, not consistently biblical. But it is fair to say that Christian truth has shaped a lot of the moral framework. of society.
8:27 For example, beliefs we hold about human dignity, justice, charity, forgiveness, conscience, law, compassion, all of these were formed in soil that was marked by the Bible. Over recent centuries, and especially with the confidence that peaked with the new atheists in the early 2000s, Western culture kind of started to consider itself post-Christian. where it had grown up from the primitive and childish superstitions of religion. Attempting to retain the fruits of Christianity, but without the root. Still wanting dignity, justice, compassion, freedom and meaning, but without God. Sin, judgment, redemption, grace, mercy or lordship. However, I think pretty quickly that shaky foundation has begun to crack and crumble. You just have to note the topics of discussion and the guests invited to what now are the largest public forums, the largest town squares on the globe.
9:42 Just picked a few examples there. should hopefully be at least one face you might recognise there. Professor John Lennox and many others have had opportunity on those platforms and forums to share the gospel literally with millions of people with opportunity that would have been unthinkable 10 to 15 years ago. Atheistic, materialistic secularism has left a profound emptiness. in many individual human souls. And the collective crisis of meaning, people write books about it now. And it drives a searching that I think in many ways has moved us full circle, to where we are kind of in a state of pre-Christian again, or to use the fancy word for it, neo-paganism. Not because everyone is bowing before statues, but because paganism is a world of many gods, and our culture has got many gods.
10:53 Self-expression, sexuality, money, comfort, identity, nation, tribe, political party, platform, power, pleasure and personal freedom. It can be so easy to find ourselves despairing at the moral rot of our society. certainly many evil and sinful things are present. But for the church, this is an opportunity. Because secularism has not satisfied the human soul. For all our supposed progress, people are still searching for meaning. Still carrying guilt, still afraid of death, still hungry for belonging, Still longing for transcendence, still looking for identity, still trying to find peace, still thinking there must be more to life than this. Now we must not make the mistake of thinking that the death of atheism is a revival.
12:01 It's not. But it is an opportunity for one. A remarkably similar opportunity to the believers. in Acts chapter 4. It's not a world with no spiritual hunger. It's a world full of misdirected hunger, full of gods that cannot save, full of religions that cannot reconcile people to the living God. And into that world, they spoke the name of Jesus. So in that context, and understanding some of the similarities, and yes, there's lots of differences too, to our context.
12:43 Let's examine this prayer. A prayer that these believers prayed when they first began to encounter the kind of opposition that would ultimately end, for many of them, in severe persecution and even death. So there's four things I want to share from this prayer. First one is this, that they anchor themselves in who God is. They anchor themselves in who God is. They start their prayer with Sovereign Lord who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. How often do we read words like that and just sort of glance over them or let them just pass by? So it's just the introduction to the prayer.
13:37 This is who we worship. This is who we love. This is who loves us first. It's not some carving of stone. It's not some imagination of man. It's not some far off, distant, aloof, capricious God is the all-knowing, all-powerful, ineffable creator and sustainer of not just this world but of the entire universe. And who also calls us friend. On A slightly topical note from this week, I saw this picture online and couldn't not share it.
14:23 It's from Portugal of the eclipse this week. And what Guy has done is, one, two, three, 4, 5, 6, taken 7 pictures of different stages during the eclipse and put them all into one image. And there's actually, I don't know if you can see it or not, but down in the bottom right one, the very last one, you can see the outline of some wind, I keep saying wind turbines because that's what my children say, wind turbines. on the mountain shop there. And I just think it's a beautiful picture. Now, we could look at that and we could talk about the fact that during totality, the moon's angular diameter precisely occludes the solar photosphere. We could talk about gravitational geometry, orbital parallax, umbral convergence. We could talk about relative, I can't even say it, relativistic light deflection.
15:17 But we could say that the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. And it is to this God, this sovereign Lord, that these believers and that we get the privilege of anchoring not just our prayers in, but our entire lives. Just like Caleb and Joshua, who were the two of the 12 Israelite spies who trusted God, may our perspective be grounded in who God is. Not who we are in our own strength, nor the size of the giants that we face. You see, the believers here were able to face the threats because they first faced their Lord. Their prayer is not anchored in the size of their courage, but in the size of their God. Where is our anchor today? Is it in our comfort?
16:29 Is it in our bank account? Is it in our ability to figure it out? Is it misplaced in a false image or expectation? of God. He'll always bail me out no matter what I do, or he's not really interested in me, so yeah, I'll just have to work it out myself. When challenges and difficulties come, where is our first thought? What do we reach for first? To whom or to what do we turn?
17:03 Speaking of God's sovereignty and his reliability, the writer of Hebrews says these well-known words. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf. They anchor themselves in who God is. The second thing that they do is that they acknowledge the challenge and the difficulty that they face. but they're not consumed by them. They say, and now, Lord, look upon their threats. All through this series, we have seen the realness of people's prayers. As they have wrestled through challenge, difficulty, daunting circumstances.
17:57 Last week, Jeff beautifully took us through the anguish of Jesus as he faced the impending weight of the burden of our sin and the Father's righteous wrath. It is right to acknowledge these things. The Lord both teaches us to and also exemplifies acknowledging our trials, temptations, struggles, bringing them before God in prayer. They shouldn't be overlooked, minimized or ignored. But they should also be contextualized. with who God is and the perspective of eternity. I know this is easy to say and hard to live. But the context of all the pain and the difficulty and the suffering and the challenge here on earth is the reality of Jesus' resurrection and our eternal hope in him.
19:05 What I love in this prayer today is that while these challenges are acknowledged, they are not all consuming. The opposition, the death threats, the warnings that the disciples have received get 7 words in a 155 word prayer. It's not because they weren't important or impactful. It's not because the believers were ignorant to the consequences. or flippant with their own lives or with each other's lives. It's not because they thought they were stronger or could overcome or overthrow these authorities making these threats. The believers were able to acknowledge but not be consumed by their challenges because of their anchor and the sovereign God and their focus on the mission that he had given to them. And that continues straight in to what they ask for.
20:03 Because having acknowledged these, they then ask for boldness, not for relief. They say, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. It's not really possible to do this, but I have tried to reflect and think as I've been preparing. I've tried to put myself in their position. It's impossible to do. But I've tried to think, what would I have prayed if I was there? And I have to be honest.
20:46 I think I'd have been praying. Stop their threats, Lord. Deal with them. Remove them. And I realised actually that the believers didn't even pray, Lord, keep us safe. They didn't ask for their circumstances to be changed. They asked for themselves to be changed, empowered within the circumstances that they faced. These believers, as Heather shared, had been with Jesus.
21:33 They had been so transformed by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and the indwelling baptism and filling of the Holy Spirit that they were driven by a missional purpose higher in their priorities than their immediate comfort happiness and even safety. It echoes a story from the book of Daniel in the Old Testament that moves me every time I read it. It's of three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Or as they used to say, shake the bed, make the bed and off the bed you go. And they find themselves in a very similar culture. a paganistic culture where the king has made this gold statue and the edict has gone out that everybody must bow down and worship this and these three guys refuse to do so. And they find themselves in front of the king and they're given their final warning and threat that they are about to be thrown into the fiery furnace. And this is what they say.
22:50 if this be so, Our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. The pre-Christian, pagan, whatever you want to call it, opportunity that we are presented with challenges us and calls us as believers to trade our desire for cultural comfort for the spiritual gift of boldness. As A Fellowship of Believers in Newton Abbey 2026, What is our ask? Comfort? Relief?
24:04 Safety? That things would go back to the way they used to be? Or is it boldness? Oh Lord, stir us. to hunger after and ask for the boldness that these brothers and sisters yearned for. They anchor themselves in who God is. They acknowledge challenge, don't get consumed by it. They ask for boldness, not relief.
24:34 And then finally, they act from God response. It says, 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. The Lord answers their prayer immediately and demonstrably. And the believers continued, I like that it says continued, they didn't just start now, but they continued their mission. They continued with increasing boldness despite increasing opposition. but not in their own strength.
25:20 By the filling and empowerment of the Holy Spirit. What was the outcome? Well, despite severe persecution, an environment in which you think the gospel could not flourish, the growth of the early church became uncountable. The 5000 number mentioned at the start of chapter 4 is the last time it's counted. Later on in Acts 21, when Paul, who was a persecutor, became an evangelist, went to visit James in Jerusalem. And James said to him, you see brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews who have believed. That was just the Jewish believers in Jerusalem. By that stage the gospel had exploded across the region among Jews and Gentiles.
26:19 Christianity grew exponentially because ordinary people lived extraordinary spirit-filled lives that boldly proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ. The mission field of a pagan world is in desperate need. It may not always know it, but it is hungry. And it's hungry for a church that is both grounded in solid biblical truth land is filled with the tangible supernatural presence of the Holy Spirit. And the challenge for us as individual believers and as a group is that we have opportunities in every day of life and in every sphere of life that we live, at home, at work, at school, at uni, at the paddle club. We have opportunities to speak boldly of Jesus. Jesus said the fields are white unto harvest.
27:39 They are ready. They are hungry. They are ripe. Are we trying to do this? Are we not trying at all? Are we trying to do it in our own strength? Or are we filled with and living in the power of the Holy Spirit? The New Testament doesn't present boldness as a personality type.
28:04 It's not like some people can do it and other people can. Excuse me. It presents boldness as a spirit-given confidence. rooted in who God is, what Christ has done and the mission that we have been entrusted with. And that mission to a pagan culture is not for the church to become angry, frightened, reminiscent or controlling. It's not to become nostalgic for a time when, let's be honest, through rose-tinted glasses, the culture felt more Christian. Acts 4 shows us where the church's power truly lies. It's not in control, it's not in respectability, it's not in moralising, it's not in cultural dominance, it's in prayer, sound doctrine, the Holy Spirit, and the bold proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
29:11 Him crucified and resurrected. A church that can speak the name of Jesus with courage, compassion, clarity and boldness. A church who anchors herself in who God is. Who acknowledges opposition but isn't consumed by it. Who asks for boldness. not relief. And when God answers, it acts. For we have the most radical good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
29:51 While we were yet sinners, Christ died for our sins. He rose again victorious. And we have a hope for this life and the life that is to come. We have a sure and certain hope. What is our real prayer for real life? Lord, grant us boldness to speak of Jesus. Let's just take a moment and bow our heads. I'm going to pray in a little moment, but just in this
30:34 moment to allow the Holy Spirit to solidify to each of us and speak to each of us. There's just a couple of questions I've written down that I want to read out and I think all of us will find ourselves somewhere here. Just to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to each of us and lead each of us. It's in the context of this radical good news that we have talked about. I think sometimes it becomes so familiar that we forget how exciting it is and how life-changing it is. And there's just a few questions on this. And the first one is very simple. Have I encountered this yet?
31:17 Have I encountered Jesus as Lord and as Saviour? And if you're here this afternoon and you are exploring and you have not yet made that decision, please speak to somebody before you go. Maybe it's with somebody that you're with. We have team here with lanyards. There's a prayer room at the back. Feel free to come and speak to me. I'd love to. But don't leave without having that conversation.
31:44 For those of us who are believers, let's ask ourselves these questions. Am I captivated by this? Or is it just a convenient part of my life? Am I being transformed daily by the power of the gospel? Am I filled and being filled by the Spirit? Do I have the boldness to share it with others? Lord, we thank you that you love us. Lord, we thank you that you never come to condemn us in these moments, Lord, but that you come to encourage us and to draw us to yourself.
32:34 Lord, I pray, Lord, for each of us as we reflect on these things. Lord, I pray that you would fill us afresh with your Holy Spirit and that just as with those believers, Lord, that you would grant us the boldness to take the opportunities that present themselves to us today, tomorrow, Tuesday, Wednesday. Lord, to speak of you, to speak of Jesus, and to proclaim the truth of your gospel. In Jesus' name, amen.
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About this talk
This talk explores the believer's prayer for boldness found in Acts chapter 4, verse 23 onwards. It situates the early church's growth and challenges within the 1st century Roman Empire and draws parallels to contemporary Western culture's spiritual landscape. The speaker highlights four key observations from the prayer: anchoring in God's sovereignty, acknowledging difficulties without being consumed by them, asking for boldness rather than relief, and acting upon God's response. The talk encourages believers to embrace boldness in proclaiming the gospel, empowered by the Holy Spirit, amidst opposition and cultural shifts.
Bible passages
- Acts 4:23–31 (main passage)
- Psalms 2:1–2
