A Prayer for Boldness (Acts 4:23-31)

Welcome & Announcements

You have just a few more days to bring in any winter clothing that you’d like to send over to Ukraine—we’re looking for hats, gloves/mittens, scarves, and socks to aid refugees during the winter. If you have anything, please be sure to bring it in by this Wednesday, November 2, 2022.

Next week, we’ll have an Annual Business Meeting followed by lunch—there are just a few food items left to sign-up for, if you’re interested in bringing in some side-dishes please sign-up before you leave this morning. As always, our business meetings are open to the public, so if you’re not a member, please feel free to stick around during the meeting anyway—we’d love to have you there.

Special thank you to all that were able to help yesterday during our outreach effort—I’m pretty sure we passed out well over 100 bags of candy; let’s pray that some fruit will come from our efforts.

Now typically, during our Sunday morning worship services, we don’t take time to celebrate most holidays. The exceptions, of course, include Christmas and Resurrection Sunday. Occasionally, like this morning, I spend a few minutes discussing a certain holiday—that usually includes mother’s day, father’s day, and today, it includes what’s called Reformation Day.

Reformation Day is celebrated every October on the 31st, though obviously, it’s clearly overshadowed by a much more popular holiday that involves children dressing up and collecting candy at people’s homes. So, let me tell you why Reformation Day is such an important day before we jump into our worship this morning.

In the 1400s and into the early 1500s the world was a very different place. In it, the Roman Catholic Church controlled all religious and supposed Christian thought throughout the known world and they would put to death those who spoke against what the Roman Catholic Church taught.

The issue is that the Roman Catholic Church at that time and even to this day was and is notoriously and infamously corrupt and they did not and still do not preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ—they preach a works-based false gospel, but at the time in the 1400s and 1500s very few people were bold enough to speak against the papacy.

Occasionally, men like John Hus, John Wycliffe, and William Tyndale started speaking up against the false teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.

This protest against the Roman Catholic Church had been brewing for some time when in 1517, Martin Luther, who was a Catholic monk after studying the book of Romans to teach as a professor made the realization that the pope and the Roman Catholic Church wasn’t preaching the Gospel according to Jesus, but rather a man-made, works-based, false gospel.

Martin Luther didn’t initially want to leave the Catholic Church, he actually wanted to fix the church, but after writing up his conclusions and nailing them to the doors of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany a series of events made it abundantly clear that the Roman Catholic Church didn’t want to change their false teachings—and they doubled-down on their false doctrine even to this day.

Since the Catholic Church refused to fix their false teachings, Martin Luther was forced to start his own church and several other reformers started their own churches in various places throughout Europe—like John Knox, Zwingli, and later John Calvin.

All of the churches, which eventually became known as protestant churches because they protested emphasized (at the time) a high view of Scripture along with what became known as the five solas (of which, we still adhere to, to this day)

Sola Scriptura, “by Scripture alone,” which means that Scripture alone must govern over church traditions and interpretations are held to be subject to Scripture. All church traditions, creeds, and teachings must align with the Word of God.

Sola fide, “by faith alone,” we are counted righteous before God based on our faith in Jesus alone. No work that we do can save us.

Sola gratia, “only grace,” emphasizes that merit done by a person cannot achieve salvation. Salvation is by divine grace or unmerited favor only.

Solus Christus, “Christ alone,” meaning that there is only one mediator between God and man and that mediator is Jesus Christ Himself.

Soli Deo Gloria, “glory to God alone,” means that all of life is for God’s glory alone—not for man, not for the pope, and not for the church—it is all for God’s praise and His glory.

Or in other words, whereas the Roman Catholic Church taught (and still teaches) that it is Scripture plus tradition, faith plus works, grace plus merit, Christ plus other mediators, to the glory of God and Mary and other saints the Reformers made it abundantly clear that it is Scripture over tradition, faith over works, grace over merit, Christ without other mediators with all the glory for God alone.

Which is precisely what we adhere to at Grace & Peace Bible Church preach, teach, and proclaim at the top of our lungs day after day, week after week. And this is precisely what every genuine and true Bible believing church preaches and proclaims; and if they don’t, they aren’t following Jesus according to His Word—we preach Christ and Him crucified.

The recapturing of the Gospel in the 1400s into the 1500s is the whole reason why we choose to celebrate Reformation Day every year and it’s why it’s so important for us to be a church that takes seriously semper reformanda—we need to always be checking ourselves with Scripture and we need to always be sure that we’re following Jesus rather than man-made ideology.

Praise Jesus for the Reformation and the Word of God rightly understood. To help us think of the truths rediscovered during the Reformation, all our music worship this morning ties in with the five solas.

Let me remind you to continue worshiping the Lord through your giving. To help you give, we have three ways to do so, (1) cash and checks can be given at the offering box. Checks should be written to Grace & Peace; debit, credit, and ACH transfers can be done either by (2) texting 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or (3) by visiting us online at www.giving.gapb.church. Of course, everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Ps 66:1-4)

Our Call to Worship this morning is Psalm 66:1-4, which is a psalm of thanksgiving. What you’ll see as we work through this psalm in the next few weeks is a general call for all creation to praise the Lord, a more narrow call for man to praise the Lord, and in our last week, a call for the psalmist to praise the Lord. Please stand and read Psalm 66:1-4 with me—I’ll read the odd-numbered verses; please join me in reading the even-numbered verses

Psalm 66:1–4 ESV

1 Shout for joy to God, all the earth; 2 sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise! 3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you. 4 All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name.” Selah

Congregational Worship

Reformation Song (Lead)

By Faith (361)

The Church’s One Foundation (354)

Scripture Reading (Gen 6)

Our Scripture Reading is Genesis 6, which shows the increasing amounts of corruption in the antediluvian world, which is the timeframe between the fall of man and the flood. As mankind increasingly fall into sin, we see God tell Noah to build an ark. Tara can you read this historical narrative for us?

Genesis 6 ESV

1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. 5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 16 Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. 21 Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

Preaching of God’s Word (Acts 4:23-31)

Introduction

If you have your Bibles this morning, please turn it to Acts 4:23-31.

While you’re turning there, I do need to just remind you a bit of the past few messages because this morning’s message builds on those messages. Remember, that in our study of Acts, we’ve studied the Day of Pentecost including the initial permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We see Peter and John proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ on two occasions with several thousand people repenting from their sins and believing in Jesus Christ.

After the second sermon recorded by Luke, we see Peter and John arrested by the Sanhedrin and tried for their supposed crimes, but choosing to obey God rather than fear man, they refuse to recant and they refuse to stop proclaiming Jesus and Him crucified. Because of the people’s response to Peter and John, the Sanhedrin choose not to do anything about them, but instead, they threaten them, command that they stop preaching Christ, and they send them out.

This morning’s text continues this historical narrative by telling us what exactly the apostles do after being told to stop preaching about Jesus.

Keep this in mind as we read Acts 4:23-31.

Acts 4:23–31 ESV

23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 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, 25 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? 26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’— 27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 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.

As we study this passage, we’re going to break it into two parts (1) The Premise of their Prayer (23-28) and (2) Their Request for Boldness (29-31)—what we see in these two sections is the apostles along with the disciples praying together after the chief priests and elders told them to stop proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We see a prayer that’s the result of their firm conviction that the Gospel is of far more importance than obeying civil leadership (even when that leadership claims to be spiritual) and a prayer in which the apostles ask for greater boldness and confidence as they continue to proclaim the message of God.

Pastoral Prayer

The Premise of their Prayer (23-28)

Our text starts by continuing the historical narrative at hand. Remember, that at this time, it is the day after Pentecost and like I reminded us during the introduction it is after John and Peter were tried for their supposed crime and told not to proclaim the Gospel. Of course, they would then go to their friends to tell them about what had happened.

So, they go to their friends and tell them what the chief priests and the elders (really the Sanhedrin) had told them—the command that they were to stop preaching the Gospel.

And we could assume they’re probably also informing their friends of their own statement—that they needed to obey God rather than man.

We shouldn’t be surprised that John and Peter went and told the other apostles and the disciples this for two reasons:

First, remember that there is a commonality, there is a fellowship of believers occurring where all the believers are together and they’re working together at proclaiming the truth and helping one another—they’ve developed a thriving community.

Second, because of this community, when something significant happens (and let’s be clear—being told not to proclaim the Gospel, which is what Jesus told them to do is significant)—of course they would go and tell everyone. At the very least, for everyone to pray over the situation.

And that’s precisely what happens.

In v. 24, we’re told that they start praying and then in vv. 24b-28, we see the start of this prayer.

In v. 24 we read that their prayer was done together and their prayer was towards God, “when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God.”

Telling us that they lifted their voices together tell us that this is an issue that all the people agreed was an issue. It wasn’t like Peter and John misunderstood what the Sanhedrin had told them to do—they weren’t overreacting.

The other disciples didn’t think that they were overacting, they didn’t think that they simply misunderstood what the Sanhedrin said—they assumed that Peter and John heard the Sanhedrin correctly and they understood that what the Sanhedrin had said was wrong and that there was a significant problem.

Now, I think we need to note the fact that after they were told not to proclaim the Gospel by the Sanhedrin, the response of God’s people is that of prayer—this is worth noting because often, this isn’t how we respond.

When we’re faced with trying times like this, our tendency is to look within ourselves for help—it’s a product of living in a society that thinks that everyone ought to be completely self-focused.

And when we do find ourselves in the rare situation that someone tells us not to proclaim the Gospel, we respond in one of two ways—we obey them or we get upset that our rights are being taken away, but then we still obey them.

But Peter and John, the apostles, and the disciples hear what the report is—and they all get together and pray.

They don’t look within for strength and support, they look towards God for help—they don’t try to develop within themselves the strength that they need, they look towards the one who ultimately gives us strength.

And then we see the prayer itself. And in the next five verses, we see the foundation or the premise for the prayer as part of the prayer itself.

Again, they address the prayer in vv. 24b-25, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them.”

In this address towards God, note how they focus on God being all-powerful and in complete control.

They focus on the creation because through creation God reveals His strength.

They call Him the Sovereign Lord because they recognize Him as the one who has sovereign control over all.

He is the King, He is the Almighty, He is the one in charge—see the juxtaposition between the Sanhedrin and the High Priests and God Himself. The Sanhedrin and High Priests think that they are in charge and that they have all the power and authority, but God is the one with all power, all authority, and is completely in charge—and the disciples know this.

They then point out that this same all-powerful, all sovereign, completely in charge God, spoke through the mouth of David by the Holy Spirit.

They then refer to the passage of Scripture at hand and it’s this passage of Scripture that lays the premise for their prayer. This is from Psalm 2:1-2, “Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his anointed.”

If you’re familiar with Psalm 2, you’ll notice that disciples prayer seems to change a word. They say, “Why did the Gentiles rage,” Psalm 2 actually says “Why do the nations rage.”

Let me explain that just a bit—the Hebrew word in Psalm 2 is definitely translated correctly, but the disciples in Acts 4 weren’t using the Hebrew text, they primarily utilized the Greek Septuagint, which was one of the primary translations utilized of the Old Testament in the first century (Jesus even quotes from it).

On occasion, when Old Testament passages were quoted in the New Testament--because they were following the Greek rather than the Hebrew, there are minor translation differences.

The Hebrew in Psalm 2:1 is goy, which translates as people, nations, pagans, or heathens.

The Greek Septuagint utilizes the word ethnos, which translates as Gentiles, people, or nations.

It really shows us the difficulty of translation, but the meaning is the same—the people being referred to are unbelievers who rage, who plot, and set themselves against the Lord and God’s people.

The reason why the disciples utilize this quote from Psalm 2 is because David when he wrote the psalm was writing about how unbelieving people will do whatever they can to discredit, to attack, to go against God and God’s people.

And the disciples utilize this concept from Psalm 2 to show how in their present time, those in the city of Jerusalem gathered against Jesus, who God anointed—both Herod and Pilate, the people themselves, and even the Israelites were all against Jesus.

Just like David said by the Holy Spirit. Note again, how frequently the apostles and disciples refer to the truth that everything that happened in Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection was intentional—it all happened on purpose.

So much so, that Luke records in v. 28 that all these people were gathered against Jesus “to do whatever [God’s] hand and [His] plan had predestined to take place.”

Or in other words, even though the individual people were still responsible for their own sinful behavior, God used what they meant for evil for good.

Even though the people acted and reacted by their own volition (their own will), God in His sovereignty and providence still did what He set out to do as the Almighty King.

Now just think of all this in light of the juxtaposition between the High Priests, the Sadducees, the Sanhedrin thinking that they were in complete control of all things and who actually is in complete control of all things. The High Priests and the Sanhedrin commanded that they stop proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but really, who has all the authority and all the power? It’s certainly not the Sanhedrin—it’s God and this is what they have in mind as their prayer switches to a request. Let’s look at vv. 29-31 again.

Their Request for Boldness (29-31)

Acts 4:29–31 ESV

29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 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.

Now, the disciples are in a situation in which they’ve been threatened and commanded to not proclaim the Gospel, which let me clarify—they were commanded to disobey God.

There are all sorts of different things that we might assume that they would pray for:

They could’ve prayed that God would change the minds of the High Priests and the Sanhedrin—something that most of us would’ve done.

They could’ve prayed for God to convict their hearts and call them to repentance—again, something that most of us would’ve done.

They could’ve prayed for wisdom in how to navigate the situation, but note that their request isn’t for any of these things.

Their primary request was for God to grant them boldness to continue to speak God’s word. Why do you think that the disciples prayed this way instead of praying for all the other requests that they could’ve prayed for?

Let me propose a simple reason—because the disciples realized that regardless of whether the High Priests changed their minds or repented, they were told to do something by God—thus, their priority is to do what God had told them to do.

Could they have still requested for these other things to have happened? Absolutely and they probably did ask God to change the Sanhedrin’s mind and call them to repentance, but they recognized that even if the Sanhedrin and High Priests didn’t change their minds, they still needed to proclaim the Word of God.

We see this in the way that they word this prayer, vv. 29-30, “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.”

Despite all the threats from the Sanhedrin, they knew they needed to continue speaking God’s Word, so they ask God to grant them boldness to do so. This boldness is really just another way to say confidence.

What it shows us is that they still want to remain obedient to the Great Commission despite the threats that they received.

It shows us that they want to continue proclaiming God’s Word despite the earthly authorities telling them not to.

It shows us that they truly think that obedience to God is of far more importance than obedience to man.

Regardless of continued threats, regardless of whether the Sanhedrin and High Priests ever actually change their minds and repent, the apostles and the disciples are still going to proclaim God’s Word—they’re still going to preach the Gospel, they’re still going to reach the nations for Jesus Christ.

And while they continue to preach God’s Word and proclaim the Gospel, they simply ask God to continue to do miraculous signs and wonders through the name of Jesus Christ.

Or in other words, they simply ask God to keep working in the lives of those who hear the Gospel and learn God’s Word.

Their prayer is for them to have boldness or confidence to continue preaching and proclaiming God’s Word despite opposition against them and really against God.

Considering it’s Reformation Day Eve, I can’t help but to think of Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms, who according to tradition, when told to recant from the biblical teaching of justification by faith alone replied to the Roman Catholic leadership at Worms with, “Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.”

What Luther did in 1521 with the Diet of Worms is what the disciples and apostles did in Acts 4. When threatened, when told to be quiet and to recant—they recognized that it is better to obey God than to obey man.

So, when confronted by man and told to hold their tongue, they chose instead to ask God for boldness as they sought to continue preaching and proclaiming the Word of God.

This section of Acts 4 then ends with v. 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.” There are three details that we want to look at in this last verse:

First, the miraculous shaking was not normative nor was it to be continuously expected—occasionally, Christians today will try to explain away miraculous events—so, they’ll just say that they experienced shaking because of thunder outside or they make the claim that the shaking was something internally felt.

Remember, miracles are by their very definition events that normally don’t happen because God acted on His creation in a way that creation normally doesn’t act or respond.

It could have been thunder or it could’ve been something more internally felt—it could’ve been an earthquake. In fact, we see God utilizing earthquakes multiple times to confirm His Word or give approval to something occurring.

Regardless, it was miraculous and it was notable, but it wasn’t meant to be a continuous expectation of the people of God—we know this, because no where else in Scripture do we see this as an expectation of people being filled by the Spirit of God.

Howard Marshall, “The effect of the prayer was remarkable. The room in which the disciples were gathered shook as if an earthquake was taking place. This was one of the signs which indicated a theophany [an appearance of the Lord] in the Old Testament (Exod 19:18; Isa 6:4) and it would have been regarded as indicating a divine response to prayer. The point is, then, that God signified that he was present and would answer the prayer.” (Howard Marhsall, Acts: An Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 5. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1980, 113-114)

Second, the filling of the Holy Spirit mentioned here is different than the indwelling of the Holy Spirit mentioned in Acts 2.

This is not a re-indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The believers were permanently indwelled for the first time in Acts 2.

This is a continuous filling of the Holy Spirit that the Bible elsewhere tells us to seek.

Think Ephesians 5:18 “18 And do not get drunk with wine, in which there is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,”

Or even consider how Ephesians 4:30 or 1 Thessalonians 5:19 speak about how the Spirit can be quenched and grieved.

Every believer since Acts 2 is permanently indwelled by the Holy Spirit, but though sin can grieve the Holy Spirit and can quench the Holy Spirit.

Believers can be refilled by the Holy Spirit through repentance and genuinely following Jesus Christ how God wants you to follow Jesus.

Third, their prayer for boldness was answered immediately—they prayed, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and then they continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

Sometimes I think we forget that when it comes to what God’s will is, when we pray for the same thing to happen—it’ll happen.

Consider Psalm 37:4, that if you “4 Delight yourself in the Lord; . . . He will give you the desires of your heart.” — what does it mean to delight in the Lord?

We could say it like this—it means to love what He loves and hate what He hates.

It means to seek after Him and follow Him diligently.

It means to want what He Wills and to do what He commands—after all, Jesus says, if you love Him, you will keep His commands.

God wants Jesus’ Gospel to be proclaimed to every nation—if our desire lines up with His, He will answer our prayer for boldness, for confidence, to go and proclaim the Gospel to every nation.

Acts 4:23-31 is an excellent example of what we ought to do when confronted with opposition for preaching and proclaiming the Word of God. The apostles are threatened, they’re told not to proclaim Jesus’s Gospel, and they are sent away. And remember, this is the same council who tried Jesus illegally, whipped and scourged Him, and crucified Him on the cross. I’m sure their threats were just as physically devastating; but instead of cowering, instead of quieting down, instead of running and hiding, they prayed and they kept proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The question is, how exactly do we apply a passage like this to our lives today? In this case, I think it would be best if we look at the passage in one unit rather than to continue using the divisions we used earlier.

Let’s talk about application in the remaining few minutes.

Application

In Acts 4:23-31 we see Peter and John, after being tried by the Sanhedrin, return to the other disciples. They tell the others what happened—in which we can assume they told them of the threats and the command that the Sanhedrin makes concerning proclaiming the Gospel. Then all the disciples lift up their voices together and pray to God. Remember, that part of their prayer emphasizes the sovereignty of our Almighty, all-powerful God who acts and reacts in His providence before making a simple request—for God to grant them boldness or confidence as they continue to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After their prayer, they get back to doing what God had commanded them to do—they go and proclaim the Gospel with boldness. There are two applications that I want us to see out of this text. And we can sum it up like this: (1) obey Jesus rather than man and (2) ask Jesus for help as you obey Him.

In the case of John and Peter and really all the apostles and disciples—the Sanhedrin’s command that they stop proclaiming the Gospel applied to everyone preaching and proclaiming Christ and Him crucified.

What we see is that the disciples and apostles hear the instruction from the Sanhedrin and they refuse to obey it.

They understood that the Sanhedrin was wrong and in their understanding of God, they understood what Jesus had actually commanded them to do, and they realized that even though the Sanhedrin did have earthly authority, that it would be far better for the disciples and apostles to obey God than to obey the Sanhedrin.

Despite how much power, authority, and wealth the members of the Sanhedrin had; and really despite how much authority the Sanhedrin had in the eyes of all the Jewish people—the apostles and disciples chose to follow God rather than man.

I can’t help again, but to think of Martin Luther refusing to recant the truth of justification by faith alone. In both Acts 4 and Martin Luther in the 1500s, do you realize that it would’ve been easier for them all to just listen to what the people were saying and disobey God?

If Luther had simply recanted and allowed the Roman Catholic church to destroy his writings—he would’ve gone back to the regular life that he had before.

If the apostles had simply agreed with the Sanhedrin and stopped proclaiming Christ, they would’ve gone back to the regular lives that they had before.

And yet, because they knew what Jesus had commanded them to do—they chose to disobey the human authorities of their times and obey God.

Luther chose excommunication, living part of his life on the run, and being disdained by a significant part of the population rather than disobey God.

The apostles chose to be disdained by the Sanhedrin, rejected by their own people (and sometimes family), and for most of them, eventual martyrdom rather than disobey God.

Now, consider that in light of our current society and culture—in light of your present life situation.

Remember that the command to go and make disciples and to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ extends to us today, as partakers of God’s grace through Jesus Christ.

Now, consider your job, your home life, your friendships and relationships with your extended family—are you obeying Jesus? Or are you disobeying Jesus simply because your workplace tells you not to talk about Jesus? Or your home life isn’t as complicated if you don’t talk about Jesus? Or your friends don’t want to hear about Jesus, so you disobey Him instead?

That is one instance of how Christians disobey God to appease man—how else do Christians today disobey God to appease man?

In the name of supposed love, we don’t speak up when a brother or sister in Christ is in sin.

In the name of unity, we tolerate bad theology and wrong doctrine.

In the name of pluralism or post-modernism, we accept ecumenism—even with so-called progressive Christians who deny the authenticity of Scripture.

Do you know what all these different issues have in common? They show that you fear what man thinks and what man says, so you choose to disobey God to appease man.

Instead of calling out sin in love when a brother or sister is caught in sin, you just ignore it.

Instead of calling out bad theology and wrong doctrine, we pretend like it’s just a different interpretation or different understanding of the passage.

Instead of proclaiming Jesus as the only way, truth, and light, we give leniency to false religious beliefs and make the claim that all religions are supposedly good.

Instead of obeying Jesus; we’re appeasing man—and it is sin.

Again, consider your life—where in your life have you chosen to follow man rather than God?

Let me encourage you to repent from choosing to appease man rather than obey God.

And let me encourage you to do all you can to make sure that you obey God.

Our first application for this morning is this—you need to make sure that you aren’t disobeying God to appease man. Obey Jesus because if you love Him, you will keep His commands.

Now, here’s the thing—obeying God isn’t actually possible without His help. I mean this in two different ways:

Until you are a genuine believer who has been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, you cannot please God—without faith, it is impossible to please Him.

If you are an unbeliever this morning, simply keeping the laws or doing the commands isn’t sufficient because you aren’t in Christ.

Thus, trying to keep the Law of God or to please God by obeying Him simply won’t work.

You must repent of your sins, call on the name of Jesus, and believe that God raised Him from the dead—until that point, you are dead in your sins and trespasses and you will never be able to please God.

Repent, believe, and follow Jesus.

For those that are believers this morning, we don’t obey God to earn our salvation, but rather, we obey God because He saved us and because we love Him.

But even still, it’s rather difficult to continuously repent from sin and seek Jesus and seek holiness by our own volition or power of will.

Or in other words, obedience to Jesus Christ isn’t something that you can just force yourself to do—it’s something that you need His help to do. And it’s something that you’ll continuously need His help to do because you will continuously fail to obey.

The question is and this is where our application comes in—how do we obey Jesus?

It’s actually quite simple and I can say that because Scripture is very clear with what it means to obey Jesus--Jesus Himself sums it up in Matthew 22:37-39 “37 And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

If you want to obey Jesus, the key question is whether what you’re doing is a result of your love for Jesus or your love for others.

For instance, suppose I face the temptation to commit a sin—whether that’s lying, cheating, stealing, adultery, fornication, viewing pornography, or any other number of sins.

All I have to do is ask those questions. If I lie, am I loving Jesus? If I cheat, am I loving Jesus? If I’m stealing, am I loving Jesus?

In these cases, it’s a clear no, because the Bible makes it abundantly clear that these things are sinful—thus, if we love Jesus, we’ll reject these sins.

Likewise, I can consider my love for others in light of these sins as well—if I commit adultery, fornication, or view pornography—am I loving other people? Well no, I would be sinning against my wife and I would be sinning against the people that I’m committing these sins with, and I would ultimately sinning against God.

These questions (particularly loving others) can apply to other issues as well (that aren’t sin issues), but that’s a discussion for another time.

Do you want to know if you’re obeying Jesus? Ask yourself whether what you’re doing is done because you love Jesus or because you love your flesh.

And what you’re going to find is that many decisions that you make in life are based purely on your own desire and not because you love Jesus. So what should you do?

Repent when your desires lead you to sin.

Cry out to Jesus, ask Him to help you.

And then rely on Jesus to help you.

The last application for this morning is simple—rely on Jesus to give you the strength, the boldness, the confidence, and really the ability to obey Him.

Put simply, when faced with overwhelming opposition when you’re trying to obey Jesus: (1) choose obedience to Jesus rather than appeasing man and (2) ask Jesus to help you obey Him.

It is far more important to obey Jesus than it is to appease man—choose to obey Him and ask Him to help you obey Him.

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

Ancient Words (365)