Bold Witness

We’ve been talking about a blueprint for an effective church. We’ve looked at the early church in the book of Acts for guidance. The book of Acts begins when Jesus ascended to heaven after His resurrection and told his followers to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came upon them. We saw the first week that the early church was incredibly effective at spreading the Gospel through the supernatural power given to them by God. We learned a few weeks ago that prayer was a central part of their lives and that it helped to unify them. We studied the importance of relationships last week and found that God wants us to live in community so that we can support each other and so we can be a witness of God’s love to those outside of the church.

Today, we’re going to learn about the next step in building a Godly church. We need to have a bold witness. We are called as believers to share the Gospel. It’s God’s plan for saving the lost. He doesn’t have a Plan B. Jesus commanded His followers to preach the Gospel and to make disciples.

Mark 16:15 CSB

15 Then he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

Matthew 28:19–20 CSB

19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Paul reinforced the call to share the gospel.

Romans 10:13–17 CSB

13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. 14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. 16 But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.

I think most of us want to share the Gospel, but we’re afraid of what people will think about us or how they will treat us. We’re afraid that we don’t know enough about the Bible to answer the hard questions someone might ask. We don’t want to face the rejection we think will come from friends and family when we tell them about our faith.

I don’t know about you, but I’m encouraged by the disciples and the early church in the book of Acts. The same people who hid in fear after Jesus’ crucifixion became bold when they received the Holy Spirit. Peter denied Jesus before his crucifixion a short time before we see him and John preaching to crowds and standing up to the Jewish high court. Today, we’re going to study Acts 4 to learn from the early church how to have a bold witness.

We studied Acts 2 last week learned about Peter and John boldly preaching the Gospel message to the very same people who had recently crucified Jesus. Many people were saved and the church grew quickly. We saw how all the believers were united in community.

Acts 3 tells the story of Peter and John healing a lame man and then preaching to the crowd that had gathered there at the temple. An incredible 5,000 people believed their message and gave their lives to Jesus! The Jewish leaders weren’t happy about Peter and John teaching that Jesus was raised from the dead and had them thrown into prison.

The next day, Peter and John were dragged before the Jewish Supreme Court called the Sanhedrin. The high priest and the other Jewish rulers asked Peter and John by what power they had healed the man. Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and boldly told them it was done by the name of Jesus who they crucified and was raised from the dead. He said there is salvation in no one else, but the name of Jesus.

We pick up the story in Acts 4:13:

Acts 4:13 CSB

13 When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus.

I’m so encouraged by this verse! The Jewish rulers were dumbfounded that uneducated and untrained men could be so bold and we learn the first way we can have a bold witness. Peter and John didn’t attend Jewish school for rabbis and they weren’t professionals who were confident in speaking. Put yourselves in Peter and John’s shoes and imagine you were called to testify before Congress. They were poor fishermen, but the rulers recognized Peter and John had been with Jesus. The first way we can be a bold witness is to spend time with Jesus.

We can be a bold witness when we spend time with Jesus.

Peter, John, and the other disciples were called to follow Jesus and they left everything to go with Him. They spent day and night with Him, learning who He was and what He wanted them to do. He taught them through good times and bad. They asked him questions and wrestled with issues big and small.

We’re called to do the same thing. We’ve been invited to follow Jesus. We can’t spend time with him physically, but we can definitely spend time with him spiritually. The Bible is God’s word and when we read it we are hearing from Him. We can spend time studying the Word to learn the same things the disciples did. Who is Jesus? What is He calling me to do? How can I share the gospel with others? How can I be bold in the face of fear and persecution?

I want to challenge you to set aside time to unplug from technology and our hectic life to be alone with Jesus. Jesus took time away from the hustle and bustle of life to spend time with His heavenly father and He told the disciples to do the same thing:

Mark 6:30–31 CSB

30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.

There’s no way to become more like Christ and to be a bold witness without spending time with Him.

John 15:4–5 CSB

4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.

I’m encouraged that God can use ordinary people to do extraordinary things. We might not think that we are anything special, but God will work through us if we’re willing. We have to develop our relationship with God so that our passion for the lost will grow. It’s like a rechargeable flashlight. If the battery is only half full then the light won’t be very bright. We have to spend time with God to have our battery recharged.

The rulers told Peter and John to stop preaching about Jesus, but they said they couldn’t stop talking about what they had seen and heard. The rulers didn’t have any real charges against Peter and John and they were worried about the crowd, so and let them go. Peter and John went back to their friends and told them what happened in Acts 4:23.

Acts 4:23–24 CSB

23 After they were released, they went to their own people and reported everything the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together to God and said, “Master, you are the one who made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and everything in them.

Peter and John shared their story with the church and instead of shaking with fear, they dropped to their knees in prayer! Verse 23 says they raised their voices together to God. We learn from the church’s example that the next thing we can do to be a bold witness is to pray.

We can be a bold witness when we pray.

We talked about the importance of prayer a few weeks ago and we see the church turning to it again when they faced persecution. Prayer is part of spending time with Jesus so we can hear His voice, pray for others, and share our needs. We can be confident that God will answer our prayer for a bold witness because we know it’s His will for us to share the gospel.

1 John 5:14 CSB

14 This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Mark 11:24 CSB

24 Therefore I tell you, everything you pray and ask for—believe that you have received it and it will be yours.

I want to challenge you to pray for the courage to share the Gospel this week. Pray for the the people in your life who don’t know Jesus. Pray for the lost in our community. There are groups of people in the world who haven’t been reached with the Gospel. Take a look at this map of how many people groups that have few Christians and no Gospel movements. [Show Frontier People Groups map].

Will you join me in praying for boldness to share the Gospel? In their prayer, the church shows us the next way we can be a bold witness by trusting God.

We can be a bold witness when we trust God.

Peter and John had just been before the rulers of Israel, but they trusted God as their ultimate authority. The word translated “master” is an uncommon title for God in the New Testament. It’s only used five other times where we get the English word “despot.” It means absolute master and God is sovereign. They took comfort in the fact that God was in control of everything, including their suffering.

Their prayer was “Master, you are the one who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. We see God’s people recognizing His power through creation over and over in the Bible. I’m not sure we stop and think about creation as evidence of God’s power, but we should. The more I learn about our universe and miracle of life, the more amazed I become that God made it all by speaking it into existence. There was no random evolution, but a Creator who loves us and is in control of everything.

They were also encouraged by the knowledge that the opposition to Jesus and His followers was prophesied in the Old Testament. Verses 25 and 26 are a quote from David in Psalm 2:1-2

Acts 4:25–26 CSB

25 You said through the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our father David your servant: Why do the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot futile things? 26 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers assemble together against the Lord and against his Messiah.

Verses 27-28 makes the connection between the prophecy and what they saw with their own eyes:

Acts 4:27–28 CSB

27 “For, in fact, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, 28 to do whatever your hand and your will had predestined to take place.

Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles, and the Jews all gathered against Jesus and God’s plan to save all of us from sin and death. But they only accomplished what God had predestined or determined beforehand. God is in control of all of history and His plan was accomplished even with all those forces who were trying to stop it.

We can have courage and be a bold witness when we trust God like Peter, John, and the early church did. Trust God to give you strength and courage to share your faith. Have faith that the Creator of the universe is in control of everything, including your life. Trust that He knows all of your problems and allows them in your life so that you will grow in your faith and draw closer to Him.

After acknowledging their trust in God, the church prayed for boldness in verse 29:

Acts 4:29–31 CSB

29 And now, Lord, consider their threats, and grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand for healing, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly.

It didn’t take long for God to answer their prayer! The place where they were meeting was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. The last thing we can learn from the church is that we can be a bold witness because we have supernatural power.

We can be a bold witness with supernatural power

We can be confident in sharing the Gospel because we have the same power through the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised the disciples they would have power when they received the Holy Spirit and would share the Gospel all over the world:

Acts 1:8 CSB

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

If you have committed your life to Jesus Christ, then you have been given the Holy Spirit as a source of strength, wisdom, and courage. You are empowered to share the Gospel with anyone. I think our biggest problem is placing too much emphasis on what we can or can’t do. We have to trust God to help us if we are obedient to His Word.

I went on my first overseas mission trip to El Salvador several years ago. It was a dangerous place with some of the worst gangs and violence in the world. Most young men were forced to become gang members or threatened with death if they didn’t join or tried to leave. Our church partnered with local churches to share the Gospel in several cities and remote villages. I was nervous about going. I was asked to preach at several local churches and to speak at schools and go door to door. I felt completely inadequate to do it, but I was confident we were being called to go.

Our group prayed before and during the trip. Our church and the local churches in El Salvador prayed for us too. We visited a small village in the mountains to speak at school. Most people we visited had never met an American and we were treated like celebrities. While we were waiting to speak at the school, the local missionary who was hosting our group asked me to go to a nearby house. He said there was something I needed to see.

We went to the house and I met a man and woman who lived there. Several of their grown children and grandchildren were waiting in the living room. The missionary translated for the woman who said she had a dream the night before. She saw a white man in her dream who wanted to talk to her about someone named Jesus. She was shocked when our group of white Americans came to her village the next day. She told me she wanted to hear about Jesus so I shared the Gospel with her. Her whole family listened closely and when I was finished she talked to her family.

She told me her whole family wanted to follow Jesus! I prayed with them there and we connected them with a local church. They came to one of the church services that I preached at a few days later. It was one of the most incredible ways I’ve seen God work. It had nothing to do with me or my ability to speak. It was God at work with supernatural power that I had the privilege to be a part of.

God continued to work on that trip and another we take a couple of years later. I’m still amazed that I got to be a part of a movement of God because I was able to overcome my fear and follow Him.

I highly recommend a book called “Share Jesus Without Fear” by William Fay and Ralph Hodge. It’s a great resource for learning to share the Gospel. The book gives some great questions to determine how God is working in someone’s life:

Do you have any kind of spiritual belief?

To you, who is Jesus?

Do you think there is a heaven and a hell?

If you died right now, where would you go?

If what you believe were not true, would you want to know it?

We don’t have to come up with our own presentation of the Gospel. We can let the Bible speak and trust God to use it to convict and save. You may have heard of the Romans Road. It’s a set of verses that describe our need for salvation and how to be saved.

Romans 3:23 CSB

23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;

Romans 6:23 CSB

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 5:8 CSB

8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 10:9–10 CSB

9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.

Romans 5:1 CSB

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is not a better evangelist in the world than the Holy Spirit. If the churches would just let Him come in, there would soon be mighty work for Christ - Dwight Moody

Will you join me in asking God to give our church boldness to reach the lost for Jesus? Pray that God will give us a sense of urgency to reach our community and the people He has placed in our life. Pray for wisdom for how to reach our community and a vision for joining other churches to share the Gospel with the whole world.