Sermon Tone Analysis

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message.

The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

The first known “selfie” was taken by a photographer named Robert Cornelius in 1839.

But the process was a lot slower and more difficult than it is today.

Cornelius had to take the lens cap off the camera, run into the shot where he had to sit still for 15 minutes and then run back and put the lens cap back on.

Things have certainly changed a bit in almost 2 centuries, haven’t they?

In 2013, the word “selfie” beat out the words “twerk” and “bitcoin” to become the Oxford English Dictionary’s coveted “Word of the year”.

So it’s really not surprising that this week when I searched on Instagram for the hash tag “selfie”, there were almost half a billion hits.

This is just one indication of how self-obsessed we have become as a culture.

I could certainly give you a lot of other examples that would confirm that.

Tension

And unfortunately that can even be true when it comes to our relationship with God.

A lot of people, even those in the church are trying to get God to do what they want Him to do for them rather than trying to figure out what God wants for their life.

If you doubt that, then consider this.

J.I. Packer’s classic book, Knowing God, has sold over a million copies since it was published in 1973.

I haven’t been able to find sales statistics for one of my favorite books, The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer, but total sales of that classic are probably much lower than that.

Compare that to a book titled Your Best Life Now, which has sold over 100 million copies.

So two great classics that focus on knowing God have sold roughly one hundredth of the number of copies of a book that focuses on what God can do for me.

But if I want to be a disciple of Jesus, it has to be all about Him and not about me.

Don’t take my word on that.

Listen to the words of Jesus:

Rather than indulging ourselves, being a disciple of Jesus is about denying ourselves.

And those who heard these words of Jesus would have also understood that the idea of taking up one’s cross meant dying to self since a cross was not some shiny piece of jewelry or a nice wall hanging, but rather an instrument of death.

So over the next four weeks, Ryan and I will be sharing messages about four areas of our lives that need to be more about Jesus and less about me - four areas where we need to be more selfless:

Today we’ll be talking about being bold in witness.

Next week we’ll focus on being faithful in service as we use our gifts to minister to others.

In the third week, our theme will be extravagant in our generosity.

And finally, we’ll talk about how to be grateful in the grind

I think that if we’re honest, most of us would admit that we’re not as bold in our witness as we’d like to be.

And why is that?

There are probably a number of reasons, but most of them boil down to fear - fear that I don’t know enough, fear of what other people are going to think of me or even fear that the other person will reject the gospel.

Truth

But the truth is that in general we speak boldly about what we believe deeply.

We certainly see that was true in the case of Peter and John in the passage we’ll look at this morning.

Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 4. While you’re doing that, let me give you a little background.

In Acts chapter 3 we read the account of God using Peter and John to heal a man who had been lame from birth.

The sight of this man walking and leaping and praising God drew a crowd, so Peter took advantage of that situation to boldly proclaim the gospel.

Let’s pick up the account at the beginning of chapter 4:

I’ve already hinted at the main idea we’ll be developing today:

We speak boldly about what we believe deeply

Let me give you an example from my own life that demonstrates this truth.

I have been a Chicago Cubs fan all my life.

I was even fortunate enough to have a family member who worked for the team and who would get us tickets to Wrigley Field to go watch them whenever our family was in Chicago.

But for most of my life, the Cubs have always been the “lovable losers”.

So while I followed the team and remained a fan, I didn’t always talk about them a lot.

But in 2016, the Cubs were actually good for a change.

In fact they were good enough to win their first World Series in 108 years.

That season, I followed the team closely.

I watched quite a few of their games.

I knew who all their players were.

I proudly wore my Cubs t-shirts.

And I talked to other people about the team every chance I got.

Fast forward to this year.

Since the team wasn’t doing very well, they traded away all their best players before the middle of the season.

So for the second half of the season, I didn’t even know most of the players in the starting lineup.

I don’t think I watched a game all season, and I certainly wasn’t talking about the Cubs much, except may to commiserate with some fellow fans.

Peter and John were bold in their witness for Jesus because they believed deeply in Him.

That hadn’t always been the case, especially for Peter.

Not long before this, on the night before Jesus was crucified, Peter had denied that he even knew Jesus to a young girl.

Now he was standing in front of large crowds boldly proclaiming Him.

And when he and John are arrested and taken before the Jewish religious leaders they didn’t back down one bit.

First, they are confronted by the Sadducees, a Jewish sect that did not believe in the resurrection from the dead.

Then they were brought before the entire Sanhedrin, a group of 71 men who were essentially the equivalent of the Supreme Court of Israel.

That council included both Sadducees and Pharisees.

This was the very same group who had tried Jesus and asked the Roman government to crucify Him.

Peter doesn’t pull any punches.

He accuses the Sanhedrin of crucifying Jesus and rejecting the only one in whom there is salvation.

And when they are ordered not to speak any more about Jesus, they make it clear that they are going to obey God and keep speaking about what they have seen and heard.

Application

So let’s see what we can learn from Peter and John about...

HOW TO BE A BOLD WITNESS FOR JESUS

Spend time with Jesus

Sometimes, we are afraid to be bold witnesses for Jesus because we’re afraid we don’t know enough.

We worry that someone might ask us a question that we won’t be able to answer.

So we decide to leave evangelism to the “experts” with the seminary degrees.

But Peter and John are perceived by the Jewish leaders as “uneducated, common men”.

And that’s exactly what they were.

They didn’t have the religious training of these religious leaders.

But they had something more important “they had been with Jesus”.

Obviously we can’t physically spend time with Jesus like Peter and John had done for over three years.

But we can spend time with Jesus by listening to Him as he speaks to us through His Word.

We can talk to Him in prayer.

We can spend time with other people who are also spending time with Him.

And we don’t need to go to Bible school or seminary to do any of those things.

In fact, the word that is translated “common” in verse 13 is the Greek word from which we get our English word “idiot”.

So we could even say that God specializes in using idiots who have been with Jesus.

Depend on the Holy Spirit

In verse 8, we read that Peter was “filled with the Holy Spirit” before he spoke to the religious leaders.

This is exactly what Jesus had promised His disciples:

Because the Holy Spirit dwells permanently in the lives of those who have placed their faith in Jesus, we have that very same power available to us.

I can’t really give you a formula or some steps to take in order to harness that power.

All I can suggest is that when you have an opportunity to be a witness for Jesus, you shoot up a brief prayer and ask the Holy Spirit for the right words.

And then just be sensitive to His leading.

I can’t tell you how many times that when I’ve done that, the Holy Spirit gives me words that I would have never come up with on my own.

Pray for boldness

We have several examples in the New Testament of disciples praying for boldness.

In fact, later in this chapter as Peter and John are released and they gather with other disciples, that is exactly what they do: