Courage comes from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit
Notes
Transcript
Most of us, most of the time, fear the response we will get from people if we talk about Jesus.
We don’t want people to dislike us.
We definately don’t want people to speak harshly to us or even to threaten us.
But really,
Our fears are almost always worse than the reality, especially in our culture.
The early church faced, threats and far worse.
How did they respond?
It would have been natural to hide.
It would have been natural to keep quiet when threatened.
After all in their time and place refusing to obey the authorities had very real and dangerous consequences.
Flogging was a real possibility.
So was death by various rather unpleasent means.
The early church had every reason to not speak of Jesus.
But they did, even in the face of real and genuine threat to their wellbeing and even their lives.
So we have to ask ourselves.
What enabled them to speak of Jesus in the face of real danger?
Why did they have the courage to speak when it would have been easier to keep quiet?
What compelled them to boldly proclaim the Gospel, when from a human perspective they should have kept quiet?
Let’s take a look at the approach of the early church straight after their first encounter with the authorities.
Acts 4:23-24a tells us that they gathered together and lifted their voices to God in prayer.
23 As soon as they were freed, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priests and elders had said. 24 When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God:
They didn’t run and hide.
They didn’t get their lawyer.
They didn’t work out a better plan.
They didn’t change the message.
They didn’t gathered together and just talk about it for a long time and then say a short prayer to cover their conversation.
They gathered together, shared a brief report and then they prayed.
They prayered fervently.
They prayed acknowledging the Lord’s sovereignity.
They prayed boldly that they would continue to preach the Gospel of Jesus
They prayed expectently asking for the power of miraculous signs and wonders as a testimony to the power of the name of Jesus.
Before we look in more detail at the contents of their prayer I want us to understand the belief behind the prayer.
Because beliefs determine the attitude we have about something.
And our attitude determines how we act.
The Disciples beleived that God had given them the most important mission in the whole world, they knew it would be hard and they knew that the Holy Spirit was there to empower them to preach the Good News of Jesus the Messiah
The disciples foundation was the absolute conviction that Jesus is the Messiah, crucified for our sins, buried, resurrected and ascended to heaven to sit at the Father’s right hand as Lord of Heaven and Earth.
Nothing was going to shake this conviction.
They expected opposition, they had after all seen the authroities reaction to Jesus.
They were sure of their mission to share the Good News of Jesus and they had experienced the dramatic filling of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
The pieces of the puzzle were all coming together for them.
Yes there would be lots of practical things to work out as this new thing called the church grew.
But right now, their entire focus was on sharing the Good News of Jesus.
So when they faced opposition from the authorities for the first time in Acts Chapter 4, their attitude was simply.
19 But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? 20 We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.”
So after being threatened by the authorites they were released and returned to the other believers.
Now there is some debate about which group of believers they returned to and who did the speaking to those believers because when Luke wrote Acts he tended to write things in the plural.
Peter and John said,
They all prayed.
Often Luke ascribes to the group the words of the one spokeperson.
The reality is Peter and John, almost certainly returned to the home where they had set up their base and whoever from the core group of disciples, and any others who had joined them, who happened to be present at that time.
Acts 2:41 and 47 tells us that the church was already well over 3000 people.
So it wasn’t the whole church, only those who happened to be present at that time.
But those gathered listed to the brief report of Peter and John and they lifted their voices as one to God in prayer.
Verses 24 to 30 are obviously a summary of the prayers spoken by one or more of those present.
It tells us an enormous amount about the beliefs and attitudes of the early church.
Their prayers drew heavily on the form and structure of Old Testament prayers.
With this prayer in Acts taking its structure from Isaiah 37:16-20.
The prayer also follows Psalm 2 and quotes specifically from it.
Its description of God as Creator of Heaven and Earth is drawn from Psam 146:6 and Isaiah 37:16.
This is the prayer of a people who believe that God is sovereign.
That it is futile for anyone to oppose him as he not only created the heavens and earth but also foresaw their schemes.
This is the prayer of a people who are convinced that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah from the house of David.
No one can stand against his purposes, not the puppet King Herod Antipas, not the Roman Empire through it’s governor Pilate, not the Gentiles, not even the people of Israel led astray by their own ruling council.
This is the prayer of a people who know their purpose, to preach the Good News of Jesus.
They ask not for protection, not for life to be easier, instead they ask for boldness in the face of opposition.
They ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to be upon them to heal, to bring miraculous signs and wonders.
This is a people who know that nothing is from their own power and authority.
They ascribe all authority, all power to the name of Jesus.
This is the prayer of a people who looked expectantly for God to act
31 After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.
Their boldness, their courage to do what they knew would cost them.
Was built upon a conviction that Jesus is the Messiah, the Annointed One, come from God to save people from their sins.
God confirmed this for them.
The meeting place shook, once again drawing on the Old Testament in Exodus 19:18 and Isaiah 6:4 where the literal presence of God was shown by a shaking of the earth.
They received a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit.
And they got on with their primary mission of preaching the word of God with boldness.
Courage today
Most of us, most of the time, fear the response we will get from people if we talk about Jesus.
Why is that, why do we find it hard to show the same sort of courage that the early church did?
Why is there a lack of boldness?
Well some would say it is because we have things to easy, we have inherited a society where Christianity was dominant and that we need a good dose of persecution to make us real about our faith.
Well I don’t know about you but that is an answer I really don’t like and a solution to the problem of our lack of boldness that I would want to avoid.
Others would say that we aren’t committed enough to Jesus and if we really loved him we would be bolder in telling others with Jesus.
Well their might be some truth to that, but many of us here have given up a lot to follow Jesus.
We could have had a more comfortable life if we had chosen another course.
Others would say it is becuase we have forgotten about the doctrine of the Person of the Holy Spirit and settled for an organised form of religion rather than a living empowered one.
Well there might be some truth to that, but the late 20th Centuary has seen the church really rediscover the person of the Holy Spirit.
And I did happen to win the prize for senior theology at Theological College and the course that year was the Theology of the Holy Spirit.
I think that while their is an element of truth in all of those reasons, the simple truth of the matter is that the flame of desire to serve God and preach the Gospel in word and deed comes down to how much we keep in step with the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-26)
This means that our prayers need to be less on me, myself and I and more that we have eyes to see the opportunities in front of us.
This means our prayers need to be on asking for boldness, for courage to share the Gospel.
This means that our daily prayer needs to be that the Holy Spirit will have his way in my life today.
