A Courageous Life

Introduction – How do you feel about change?

Good morning everyone. My name is Michael Steemson; many people call me Steemer, and I’m the Associate Pastor here at Trinity Church Golden Grove.

Let’s begin today’s Bible talk with a question… The question is: How comfortable are you with change?

SLIDE 2 – Comfortable with change?

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being sad face, don’t like it at all and 10 being happy face, water off a duck’s back, how comfortable are you with change? Take 30 seconds to think of your answer and then share it with the person next to you.

(Pause 30 seconds)

How did we go? Anyone here on the lower end of the scale, perhaps a 1, 2, or 3? Alright, these are our Steady Eddies. What about on the other end of the scale, was anyone an 8, 9 or 10? Ok, these are our go-with-the-flow Joes.

Perhaps it was hard to place yourself on the scale because how you feel about change is relevant to the context. A change to your work situation could be good or bad, depending on what it is. A change to your health could be good or bad, depending on what news the doctor has for you.

The confronting reality is that, however we feel about change, we all have to accept that it is a constant part of our lives. The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus (Heh-rah-klai-tuss) certainly got it right when he said, “The only constant in life is change.

SLIDE 3 – Series Title

We’re in the final week of a three-week series titled “Follow Me” in which we are engaging with three stories involving Simon Peter. And we’ve seen that as Simon Peter has followed Jesus, there have been plenty of highs and lows on the journey.

From him being a sinful man who tells Jesus to go away, to him leaving everything to follow Jesus and be a fisher of people. From his denying Jesus three times, to his being forgiven and restored as a shepherd of the church.

And in today's Bible passage, we finish on a high. And as we look back at the journey of the past three weeks, we can see how much Peter has changed. But he’s not the only one who experiences change in Acts chapter 4.

First, there’s the lame man who is changed by the powerful name of Jesus. Then we’ll explore how Peter was changed by the Holy Spirit. And then there is the early church who is changed by prayer. All three are changed for the better, and all three praise God and serve him more faithfully as a result of their change.

So let’s look at each one of these in turn, beginning with the lame man who is changed by the powerful name of Jesus.

First Teaching Point – Changed By Jesus

SLIDE 4 – A Lame Man Changed By Jesus

We began today’s reading in Acts 4, which is halfway through a story that begins in Acts 3. At this point, Jesus has ascended to heaven and then equipped the early church to be his witnesses throughout the world by pouring out the Holy Spirit upon them at Pentecost.

And then one day, sometime after Pentecost, Peter and John are going to the Temple. As they approach the gates, they come across a man who has been lame his entire life.

This disability, this injury, means that this man can’t walk… so he has to be carried everywhere. It means that he can’t work… so he has to beg. He’s in a desperate situation which he has had no power to change for over 40 years.

And when this man saw Peter and John heading towards the Temple, he did what he usually did; he asked them for money. But never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined what came next.

In Acts 3, verse 6, Peter says to him, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!”

Peter then takes the man by the hand and helps him to his feet. Immediately, immediately, this man who has never taken a step in his life, begins walking. In a moment, his life has drastically changed it a way he never would have expected. But as unexpected as it was, he’s off the scale with how he’s feeling about it! He’s overjoyed, and so he doesn’t just walk; he starts leaping and excitedly bouncing around the Temple courts, praising God!

As he’s doing all this, he’s understandably attracting a bit of attention. People begin to recognise him as the same man who used to sit and beg at the Temple gates. They’re filled with wonder and awe at how this radical transformation has occurred.

Peter uses this opportunity to proclaim the gospel. He explains to the crowd that Jesus is the Messiah who suffered at the hands of sinful humanity and then was raised from the dead by God. 

He then announces that it was through faith in Jesus’ powerful name that the lame man was healed. He urges all who are present to repent and turn to God, so that their sins may be forgiven and so that they may begin a new, fresh life with the Lord.

And is often the case when the gospel is preached, there were two different responses to Peter’s message. On one hand, many in the crowd are gripped by what they had seen and heard, and they turn to God in repentance and belief. And the early church grew in size to about 5,000 believers.

On the other hand are the Sadducees. They were a wealthy and powerful religious sect whose power base was the Temple. They also did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. And so Peter teaching about Jesus’ resurrection on their turf was a crime they could not tolerate.

They respond by detaining Peter and John overnight. The next day, Peter and John are brought out for a trial before the rulers, the elders, and the teachers of the law. Their interrogation begins with the question, “By what power or what name did you do this?”

Reading now from chapter 4 verse 8,

SLIDE 5 – Acts 4:8-9

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed,

SLIDE 6 – Acts 4:10

then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.

SLIDE 7 – Acts 4:11-12

Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

It was by the power of Jesus’ name that the lame man was healed. And it is by the power in Jesus’ name that any person can find salvation.

It is only by Jesus that we can be changed from being dead in our sins to being forgiven and alive with God forever. It is only through Jesus that we can go from being enemies of God to being adopted as his dearly beloved children with a glorious inheritance awaiting us. There is no other solution to our greatest problem, no one else to save us, no other name with power… only Jesus.

Do you identify with the lame man’s condition, stuck in a desperate situation which you are powerless to change? Do you need to embrace the powerful change that only Jesus can bring?

(p) Perhaps you’ve known Jesus as your Lord and Saviour for a long time. Why not take a moment to reflect on the change he has brought into your life? What he has saved you from… and what he has saved you to. (p) And like the lame man, I trust that reflecting on those things will make you feel 11 out of 10 and you’ll praise God and possibly even leap for joy!

Jesus’ name is powerful to heal. Jesus’ name is powerful to save. Jesus' offer to all is ‘Come, follow me’, and I will give you a new life. And as we saw last week, Jesus is gracious; he forgives and restores when we fail. And as we’ll see in our next point, Jesus gives us everything we need to overcome our failures and live courageously for him. Point two then: how Peter was changed by the Holy Spirit.

Second Teaching Point – Changed By The Holy Spirit

SLIDE 8 – Peter Changed By The Holy Spirit

Last week, we spent some time recounting how Peter was initially so full of confidence and commitment to Jesus. He was a ‘one-upper’ who brashly claimed that he was more devoted to Jesus than the other disciple. Even if they all failed, he would rather die than deny Jesus.

Yet it only took the slightest bit of pressure and the ‘rock-man’ was crushed to pieces. The disciple who said he was ready to die for Jesus denies knowing him three times.

And in Acts chapter 4, we have a similar pressure-test type scenario. The religious leaders, the same authorities who orchestrated the arrest, trial and death of Jesus only months earlier, now have similarly arrested Peter and John. Surely memories of both Jesus’ trial and death and his own threefold failure must have come racing back to Peter’s mind that night.

Yet this time, the pressure doesn’t crush the ‘rock-man’; instead, he shines like a diamond. How? Let’s read the beginning of verse 8 again:

SLIDE 9 – Acts 4:8

“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them…”

Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers Peter to do something that earlier he could not do by his own strength. In contrast to his threefold denial, here the Holy Spirit enables Peter to declare that he belongs to Jesus… and that those hearing him need to belong to him too.

The Holy Spirit changes Peter so that he courageously preaches the gospel. And for us here today who are believers, we too have this same Holy Spirit dwelling within each of us. And like Peter, the Holy Spirit enables us to do what we cannot do by our own strength.

SLIDE 10 – Space Jam

As a child growing up in the 90s, Space Jam was one of my favourite movies. In Space Jam, Michael Jordan, the best and most famous basketball player in the world, gets sucked into the world of the Looney Tunes to help Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and co. win a basketball game against the gigantic Monstars.

In the first half of the game, even with Michael Jordan on their team, the Tune Squad is getting smashed. The Monstars are totally dominating.

At halftime, Jordan is trying to inspire the Looney Tunes to rally and make a comeback, but he’s having no luck. Whilst he is speaking, Bugs Bunny fills up a drink bottle with ordinary tap water and then slaps on a label that says, “Michael’s Secret Stuff”.

SLIDE 11 – Michael’s Secret Stuff

All the Looney Tunes gullibly believe that this is the magic formula that makes Michael Jordan a great basketball player. They all drink the “Secret Stuff”, and it gives them the confidence to go out in the second half and win the game.

The Holy Spirit is our “Secret Stuff”. Not a gimmick like “Michael’s Secret Stuff”, but the real, empowering Spirit of God who changes us so that we can do much more than we could ever do on our own. He empowers each one of us to be gospel proclaimers, to further the message that salvation is found in no one else besides Jesus.

(p) Now having the Holy Spirit with us doesn’t mean that we always get it right. As we’ve seen in this series on Simon Peter, sometimes we take two steps forward and then one step back. Neither was Peter a finished product from this point on; he continued to take steps forward and steps back as he followed Jesus.

But what the Holy Spirit did for Peter, and what he does for us too, is enable us to take the next step in our journey of following Jesus. He lives within us and leads us, guides us, and empowers us to pray, live faithfully, and share the joy of Jesus.

And just as Jesus gives us his Holy Spirit so that we are not trying to follow him in our own strength, similarly he gives us one another. He calls us to belong to his people, the church, the community of believers around us.

And just as we expressed when we dedicated Phoebe earlier, let us be people who walk alongside one another and encourage each other to keep following Jesus. And together, let’s be a community of people who want to change, who want to grow in maturity and become more and more like Jesus as we follow him each day.

(p) This segues us nicely into our third point: the early church being changed by prayer.

Third Teaching Point – Changed by Prayer

SLIDE 12 – The Church Changed by Prayer

The undeniable healing of the lame man meant that as much as the Sadducees wanted to silence Peter and John and stop them from preaching in the name of Jesus, ironically, they didn’t have a leg to stand on.

With further threats, they were forced to let them go. After their release, Peter and John returned to the rest of the believers and told them everything that had happened over the past couple of days. And the response from the growing band of believers was to jointly raise their voices in prayer.

Now, what could they have prayed for? Given the increasing hostility and opposition from the religious authorities towards the gospel message, the early church could have asked God to fight for them. For him to clear a path for the gospel, free of all barriers and stumbling blocks.

Alternatively, they could have asked for God’s protection and comfort; for help to endure what might be coming their way. But notice what they do pray for.

First in verse 24, they praise God’s sovereignty. He is the Creator who established the heavens and the earth. He is the one in control of all things. For even when earthly rulers like Herod and Pilate conspired against God and his Messiah, they were merely bringing into effect God’s unstoppable salvation plan.

Having praised God for his sovereignty, the believers then bring their own situation before the Lord, confident that this too will be under his control. Their prayer continues in verse 29 with these words:

SLIDE 13 – Acts 4:29

“Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness”

The believers pray that the Lord would enable them to live courageously. To speak the gospel message boldly.

Back in verse 13, the courage of Peter and John was noted by those who saw them preach the gospel in enemy territory. They noticed how these unschooled, ordinary fishermen were now courageously living out their calling as fishers of men and shepherds of the flock. And so now, the other believers are asking for this same courage.

SLIDE 14 – Learning Tower

We have this learning tower in our kitchen at home. We got it for our daughter Zoe a few years ago so she could get up to the level of the kitchen bench and join in on everyday family life. And it’s great.

That was until our son Levi learned how to climb up it. Now we have two kids able to use the one learning tower. So you better believe that any time one of them gets in there, the other comes racing over as quickly as possible and tries to get up there too. And so now we are essentially at the point where we need to either have two learning towers, or zero.

Because as I’m sure we can all relate to, no one wants to be the one who misses out. If we see that someone else has something good, we want to know how we can have it too.

SLIDE 15 – Title Slide

That’s what the early church is doing here. They’ve witnessed the courage of Peter and John and said, Lord! We want that same courage to speak your word boldly.

And for us sitting here today, do we have that same response? To not just hear tales of God working powerfully in the world through other people, but to want that for our own lives too? To pray as the early church did – Lord, enable me, enable us, your servants, to speak your word courageously.

Just like the early church, we too live in a time of opposition towards the gospel message. It does require boldness to share the gospel in our culture; it’s not an easy thing to do. Telling people that salvation is found in no one else besides Jesus is provocative. It always has been, and it always will be.

Thankfully, we don’t face that challenge alone. We have the Holy Spirit, God’s secret stuff, and he will guide our words and bring them to bear on people’s hearts.

And so, just as the early church did after hearing about the courage of Peter, I want to encourage us to pray for courage in sharing the gospel in our own lives and circumstances. In a moment, I’m going to give us all the opportunity to do just that, to put this into practice straight away.

Because as we see in the final verse we read today, God delights in hearing this prayer for boldness. He responds positively to it. We read that he poured out the Holy Spirit on the early church, and they were transformed, and they were empowered to speak the word of God boldly. We have a God who hears and answers prayers for gospel boldness.

And so, take a minute now to bring yourself before him. To pray, Lord, enable me to speak your word boldly. I’ll give you a minute to do that before I conclude in prayer.

PRAY

My One Thing

(P) Well as we do each week, let me invite you to now take one minute to open your phone or your notebook and write down your One Thing. One thing that struck you, challenged, or encouraged you today. Take 60 seconds to write it down. Then share it over morning tea. After the 60 seconds, Peter will continue leading us in a time of prayer.