They Spoke The Word With Boldness

The last couple of posts have taken us to Acts 4 to look at the apostles inability to be quiet regarding the message of Jesus and the church’s corporate prayer for boldness in the face of hostility to that message.  Now, I’d like to look at how that prayer was answered and what we can learn from it.

As a refresher, here is the prayer of the church on that occasion:

  ²⁴ And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, 

"Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them,

 ²⁵ who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, "'Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?

 ²⁶ The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed'--

 ²⁷ for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,

 ²⁸ to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

 ²⁹ And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,

 ³⁰ while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus."

 (Acts 4:24-30)

And what did God do in response to that prayer?

 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:31)

There are a number of things we can learn and apply from this passage.  First, even the apostles struggled with fear when sharing the gospel.  When they were told to stop talking about Jesus, they said, “that’s impossible.”  We might gather then that they were fearless.  Not so.  If they were fearless, there would be no reason to pray as the church did.  The church prayed for boldness because that’s what they needed.  

What does that mean for us?  If we lack boldness, we’re not strange.  A few weeks ago, on the way to the Hamilton outreach event to do street evangelism, I shared with someone I consider to be a very competent evangelist that I tend to get nervous before sharing the gospel.  He responded, “I’m nervous right now.”  I found that very comforting.  He’s great at evangelism and he gets nervous, too.  So did the apostles.  So what should we all do?  We should do what the early church did – pray for boldness.  Even Paul, who said, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel,” asked others to pray that he would be bold (Rom 1:16; Eph 6:18-20).

Second, God gave boldness to those desiring it.  The church asked for it and they received it.  We shouldn’t be surprised by this.  The Lord has commissioned us to make disciples far and wide (Matt 28:18-20).  He’s also told us He’ll give us whatever we need to do His work (John 14:12-14).  Clearly, according to this passage that includes boldness.  If we pray for boldness, we should be confident that we’ll receive it like the early church did.

Third, God gave this boldness not only to the apostles but to the whole church.  They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. It wasn’t only the apostles spreading the gospel, but all the saints.  What should this tell us?  Evangelism is a church-wide task.  And gloriously so.  It’s a desirable thing to do – a privilege. 

So to those of us who feel as if we cannot or should not share the gospel because we are not church leaders or we lack the boldness, this passage has some things to say: (1) Evangelism is the blessed task of the whole church; (2) Those who naturally lack boldness are in good company – so did the apostles; and (3) we can and should all pray for boldness, confident that the Lord will give it to us. 

Prayer works.  Through it, God gives boldness to the messenger and opens the ears of the hearer.  So let's pray for boldness and then speak with boldness.