Holy Boldness — Part 2 — 3 Characteristics of a Charismatic Church

Introduction

Good morning Church!

I want to thank each and every one of you who have come out to join with us today and I’d like to say welcome to all those who may be joining with us online as well.

If you’re glad to be here this morning, say amen.

It is good to be in the house of the Lord this morning that is for sure!

If you have your Bible’s with you, I’d ask you to go ahead and be turning with me to the Book of Acts Chapter 4 and today we will be picking up where we left off last week in Verse 23 and we will be finishing out Chapter 4 this morning.

The title I have given to the message today is Holy Boldness Part 2 — 3 Characteristics of a Charismatic Church.

Now, some of you may have the wrong thing in mind when I say a Charismatic Church and some of you may even be saying to yourselves… “I don’t know what Bro. Bobby is thinking, we ain’t no charismatic Church!”

Well we ought to want to be a Charismatic Church this morning and I don’t mean a Charismatic Church by the world’s standards but a Charismatic Church by the definitions standards!

When you look up the word “Charisma” when speaking of theology it means “a divinely conferred gift of power.” And when speaking of Christianity, the British Dictionary says it speaks of “a divinely bestowed power or talent.”

Now, I don’t know about you but I want God to bestow His own special gift of power upon this Church…or maybe it’s a special talent that He gifts to us that enables us to lead the lost to His Son Jesus.

I don’t want to be just another knot on a log Church.

I want to be a Church used by God, a Church on fire for God, a Church that has been gifted with special earth shaking power from on high like the Church we’re about to read about here in just a moment was, amen!

If we’re here to just exist friend, then we might as well lock the doors and go to the house because we’re of no use to the Kingdom of God or anyone else for that matter!

And I think that’s the problem with many Churches today. They exist to exist!

They don’t exist to exalt the Savior.

They don’t exist to lead the lost to Jesus.

They don’t exist to magnify the Father.

They can say that on their website but in all reality they simply exist as a gathering place on Sundays where a group of people can come together, go through the motions of worship and tell everyone on Monday they went to Church on Sunday!

So many Churches are existing for the wrong reasons!

And I don’t want to be a part of that kind of Church!

If you’re here to go through the motions this morning, then dear friend you’re here for the wrong reason!

But if you’re here to get closer to God; if you’re here to strengthen your faith in God; if you’re here to hear a word from God; if you’re here to praise Him for the mighty, majestic God He is…then you’re at the right place!

That is what Church is supposed to look like and we are going to see that here in the Scripture before us this morning.

Leonard Ravenhill said —“Where there is no vision the people perish.” Where there is no passion the church perishes, even though it be full to the doors.

We need passion in our pews this morning for the Lord.

We need passion in our pews this morning for the Lost.

And we need passion in our pews this morning for the lay people of the Church…for one another!

Then and only then, will we become the Charismatic Church we are going to see before us here today.

With no further ado, if you have your Bible’s turned to Acts Chapter 4 and Verse 23 would you say amen.

The Supplication of the Saints — (Vs. 23-30)

It was Prayer in Unison — (Vs. 23-24a)

Vs. 24a

“They lifted up their voice to God with one accord.”

The phrase “one accord” is the Greek word (homothymadon) and it’s a combination of “homou” which means “same” and “thymos” which means “passion.”

It speaks of unity of mind and purpose and here in the Book of Acts, this word refers to a joint or unanimous agreement.

This was a body of believers who were on the same page and that page was Jesus! They were united in soul and in spirit!

And if we want to be a Church on fire for God, the first thing we need to understand is, we need to be just like the Church of the first century and we have to be of one mind and of one accord.

Not only was it a prayer in unison but...

It was a Prayer of Understanding — (Vs. 24b-28)

Acts 4:24 NLT

24 When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God: “O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—

They understood exactly who it was they were talking to and not only that, but they understood that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah and that even in His death it was all part of God’s master plan!

John Phillips — They praised God for being what He is; omnipotent, the Creator of the universe.

That helped put things into perspective. The Sanhedrin had power; God had almighty power. The Sanhedrin could threaten, but it could not go one step beyond the permissive will of a God who can create suns and stars, seas and shores. We have a God who holds in His hand all the forces of nature, all the factors of space, matter, and time, all the possibilities and eventualities in the universe.

The threats of the Sanhedrin seemed rather weak compared with that—rather like a two-year-old with a plastic toy hammer threatening the village blacksmith.

These folks understood the sovereignty of God and when we go to God in prayer, we would do well to remember just who it is that we are praying to!

He is the God of all creation and nothing, not a single thing happens outside of His will or catches Him off guard.

Someone has well said… “there are no uh oh’s with God.”

Even when things come our way and we don’t understand them, we have to understand that inevitably it is all part of God’s master plan!

It was a Prayer in Unison and It was a Prayer of Understanding and lastly, It was a Prayer for Unction!

It was a Prayer for Unction — (Vs. 29-30)

I want you to notice something here…this was a different breed of Church folk than we have today.

They weren’t trying to run from persecution…they were praying for God to give them strength and boldness to preach despite persecution!

“God you see these people threatening us. You see these High Priests trying to quieten us from preaching about your Son. God give us some Holy Boldness to keep on preaching despite the persecution that may come our way! God don’t stop! Don’t stop performing miracles. Don’t stop performing great signs and wonders! Don’t stop using us Lord to bring the light of your holy child Jesus to a lost and dying world!”

Would to God this morning that God would raise up a body of believers who aren’t scared what this world might do to them! A body of believers who are in one soul and in one spirit! A body of believers who understand that God is Sovereign over all and in control of all! A body of believers with an unction from the Holy One to evangelize the world!

That’s what we need in this day and time in which we live!

This world needs a Charismatic Church!

And I’m not talking about one where you walk around smacking people on the head to heal them, and I’m not talking about one where the people are speaking in a foreign language nobody can understand!

No, I’m talking about the kind of Charismatic Church that has Jesus on their mind all the time; the kind that spends more time in prayer and praise than the propaganda this world is pushing; the kind that seeks out the will of God rather than their own will; the kind that puts eternal priorities above their own; the kind that sets self aside and serves others before themselves.

That’s the kind of Charismatic Church this world needs today!

There’s the Supplication of the Saints but there’s also...

The Speaking of the Saints — (Vs. 31)

Don’t miss the progression.

What took place before they were filled?

They prayed right?

The first step in getting God’s power out of heaven and into our lives is through the use of prayer!

They prayed.

And when they prayed in one accord what does the Bible say happened?

It says the place was shaken!

They prayed, the place began to shake and then look what happened.

They were all filled with the Holy Ghost!

Again, don’t miss the significance of the filling.

Every time someone gets filled with the Holy Ghost in the Book of Acts, something powerful happens.

Here, they prayed in one accord, the entire place they were at began to shake and then, praise God they got filled with the Holy Ghost and they began to speak the word of God with Boldness!

Chuck Swindoll — Three things came from the filling of the Holy Ghost...

1. They began to speak with boldness.

2. They became a selfless body of believers

3. The Church followed through with action.

1 John 3:18 NLT

18 Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.

The Living Bible Translation says — Little children, let us stop just saying we love people; let us really love them, and show it by our actions.

If we want to be like the Charismatic Church of the first century it has to begin with praying in one accord.

And part that prayer has to be, “Lord, empty me of me and fill me with all of you Lord!”

Listen, God can’t fill someone who’s already full of themselves amen!

If we want to be filled with the Holy Ghost we have to empty ourselves of our egos, our desires, our wills, and our plans. And then, we have to ask God to fill us with His desires for us; His plans for us; His will for our lives.

“God, empty me of me and fill me up with you Lord!”

If we want to be a Charismatic Church, if we want to be a Church filled with the Holy Spirit of God, then that has to be our desire!

The 1st Century Church here was a Charismatic Church and all they wanted to do was serve God in whatever capacity they could and make His name known!

Is that your desire this morning?

Do you seek to speak boldly for God?

The Charismatic Church of the 1st Century sought God in Unison, they spoke boldly for God and lastly, they exuded the same selfless nature that our Savior showed for us by sacrificing Himself for the sins of the whole world!

They were Selfless Saints!

The Selflessness of the Saints — (Vs. 32-37)

Five things I want you to see here as we look at the selflessness of the Saints.

They were of one heart and one soul — Vs. 32

They had all things in common — Vs. 32

Great Power — Vs. 33

Great Grace — Vs. 33

No one lacked — Vs. 34

Closing

If we want to mimic the Charismatic Church of the 1st Century; if we want to see the kind of change in people’s lives that they seen; if we want to feel the power of almighty God like they felt…then there’s three things we must do today.

We must pray powerfully!

How do we do that?

We Pray in Unison!

We Understand who exactly it is we’re praying to!

We Pray for Unction!

Not only do we need to pray powerfully but...

We also need to speak boldly!

One thing here lately that God has laid on my heart is to stop worrying about hurting people’s feelings when they need to hear the truth.

Often times we try to tiptoe around people’s feelings and don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we need to be rude by any means but there is a way to speak truth to someone boldly through love.

I’d rather hurt someone’s feelings and them know the truth than to never tell them for fear of hurting their feelings and then one day them end up in hell separated from God for all eternity.

We’ve got to start speaking boldly for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, I didn’t say speak in an arrogant way for the Lord Jesus Christ did I?

I said boldly.

There’s a difference.

Speaking boldly is speaking from a place of confidence while speaking arrogantly is speaking from a lack of confidence and a place of pride.

Don’t mistake the two. They are definitely different!

But we need Christians who are willing to speak boldly for the Lord Jesus Christ this morning.

And lastly, we need a good dose of selflessness and humility if we want to see the mighty hand of God move in our Churches.

We need to be more selfless

We have to be the most selfish lot of humans since the dawn of time.

This is mine or that is mine.

Listen, the Charismatic Church of the 1st Century came together in more ways than one. They sacrificed their belongings for the betterment of the group; more importantly, for the furthering of the the Kingdom of God!

Who here this morning would be willing to do that very same thing if need be today?

We have to get out of this me, myself and I attitude and put the needs of others above our own!

If we could learn to do these 3 things, there’s no doubt in my mind that God would move in a mighty way in our Church today just like He did in 1st Century Church but it’s gonna take some Saints of God to get serious about their worship of God!

Are you ready to get serious?

That’s the question I leave you with this morning.

Are you ready to get serious about your walk with God and your work for God?

If so, as we give the invitation here in just a second, won’t you come.