Profound Change
It’s exhausting to not love the story of Cinderella, the poor and uncared for woman wearing rags who’s instantly reworked into a stunning princess on the wave of the fairy godmother’s magic wand. The difficulty is that the change that’s supplied is merely superficial. When midnight comes, the coach is recognizable as a pumpkin, and the coachmen are properly dressed, sweetly perfumed rats. No lasting, foundational change has been led to.
It’s not so with the adjustments that Jesus brings to a life. Jesus adjustments individuals from the within out, and because of this, the adjustments that he brings are actual, substantial, and lasting. In Acts 3 we see the dramatic change that the facility of Jesus introduced into the lifetime of the crippled man. From beginning, he had been unable to stroll, and since he was bodily lower than good, he was excluded from the temple the place the presence of God dwelt. Now the person couldn’t solely stroll however run and soar and leap to the reward of God (Acts 3:8). Maybe much more astounding than the change within the crippled man is the change that has been led to within the disciples.
Within the area of some weeks, they went from being a bunch of terrified people huddled away in an higher room for concern of the authorities (John 20:19) to males who walked the streets of Jerusalem and stood in entrance of the Jewish authorities proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ boldly to anybody and everybody who would pay attention. Boldness is a key theme in Acts 4 (Acts 4:13, 29, 31). Peter specifically had been modified from a coward who denied that he even knew Jesus when he was confronted within the excessive priest’s home on the night time earlier than Jesus’s crucifixion (Luke 22:54–60) to a brave witness to the unique and distinctive energy of Jesus because the messianic Son of God, the one supply of life, well being, and peace on this world. This was a miracle each bit as exceptional and as plain because the therapeutic of the crippled man.
On this sensible, winsome information, Iain Duguid explores the persevering with work of Jesus after the ascension in Acts 1–8, encouraging believers right this moment towards gospel-driven, Spirit-filled mission.
What gave the apostles their boldness in talking such an unpopular message? Acts 4 addresses the aftermath of the therapeutic of the crippled man. It exhibits us Peter and John being arrested by the Jewish authorities and placed on trial for his or her actions—on the similar time that many different individuals have been coming to imagine in Christ as they noticed the lame man healed and heard Peter’s preaching. This chapter of Acts identifies a number of sources for the apostles’ highly effective boldness, sources that problem our normal reluctance and unwillingness to talk out for Christ—particularly if we predict that folks is perhaps offended or indignant with us for what we are saying. This chapter additionally encourages every of us to discover a contemporary boldness in talking for Jesus.
1. Private Acquaintance with Jesus
Within the first occasion, the apostles’ boldness comes from their private expertise of Jesus Christ. They could be “uneducated, widespread males,” however they’ve been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). Even the apostles’ enemies acknowledge that point with Jesus was the supply of their confidence.
Their confidence got here not from years of studying realized theological treatises in seminary however from time spent with Jesus. It is a tremendously necessary fact to grasp. Some could have spent a good period of time studying theological books, whereas others haven’t, and there’s utility right here for these in each classes.
For these of us who’ve frolicked in theological coaching, there’s a actual hazard that after we communicate to others about Jesus, we make issues too sophisticated. My spouse is a significantly better evangelist than I’m as a result of she has a capability to chop proper by way of the peripheral questions and get right down to the guts of the matter: Who’s Jesus? A few of us have to be reminded that individuals are not transformed in the end by mental arguments however moderately because the Holy Spirit provides them new beginning and opens up their eyes to who Jesus is.
Alternatively, there’s additionally an utility right here for many who haven’t had any theological coaching. Maybe you might be tempted to let your lack of know-how stop you from talking up for Jesus. Don’t let that absence of coaching fear you; go forward and inform individuals what you do find out about Jesus. The truth that God has made you his and holds you safely in his hand, and that he has given you a hope and a wonderful inheritance in Christ—all that is dramatic sufficient!
However don’t put on your theological ignorance like a badge of pleasure. Keep in mind that regardless that the disciples hadn’t been formally schooled, they’d been with Jesus. That they had devoted themselves for 3 lengthy years to being with him, listening to his educating, watching him at work, finding out him, and studying at his ft. Though we will’t bodily go and journey round with Jesus, we will nonetheless sit at his ft as we learn the Scriptures and examine them and as we assist each other apply these truths into our hearts and lives. That is how we will be with Jesus, even right this moment. And one mark of that “being with Jesus” must be our boldness to declare that very same fact to others round us.
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2. Recognizing God’s Sovereignty over Creation
The subsequent supply of the apostles’ boldness comes from their recognition of the sovereignty of God. The apostles remind themselves who was operating the world by which they stay, they usually draw confidence from that data. The thought of God’s sovereignty is a doctrine that folks typically get tied up in knots over, however it’s really sensible in its utility. God is sovereign over all creation as a result of he made the heavens, the earth, the ocean, and every thing in them (Acts 4:24).
If God is sovereign over all creation, he’s additionally the one who should set the agenda for our lives. He’s our final King, and we should undergo him. Peter and John acknowledge this fact of their response to the Jewish leaders: “Whether or not it’s proper within the sight of God to hearken to you moderately than to God, you will need to decide, for we can not however communicate of what we now have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19–20). In different phrases, they acknowledge a better authority than the political and non secular leaders of their day. And the identical should be true of us. We imagine what we imagine about God and we do what we do as Christians as a result of God has spoken in his phrase, and we should obey him—and never as a result of the politicians or the tradition and even the church inform us what to do.
3. Peter and John’s Message
It’s all very effectively to be daring, empowered by the Holy Spirit, but when we’re going to talk boldly for God we’d higher ensure that we now have the message straight. Boldly spoken nonsense received’t assist anybody. Peter and John’s message is actually quite simple, regardless that it was offensive to the prevailing non secular management, each then and now. Jesus died on the cross, was raised from the lifeless, is now exercising a robust ministry right here on earth, and is the unique technique of salvation (Acts 4:10–12). Right here we see as soon as once more a theme that’s completely distinctive about Christianity. The message of each different faith stresses the life and educating of its founder. However Christianity revolves across the dying and resurrection of its founder.
Christianity is an unique faith; Peter says that “there isn’t a different identify given amongst males by which we should be saved” (Acts 4:12). There are different religions which have ethical teachings which can be in some methods similar to these of Jesus, so if salvation have been about getting your morality straight, there would probably be some ways to strategy God. However no different faith beneath heaven proclaims the dying and resurrection of Jesus as our solely hope—that it isn’t Jesus’s educating that saves us however his sacrificial dying and his triumphal resurrection. In his righteousness he stored the legislation spotlessly in our place, his sacrificial dying with all our sins laid on him paid the debt that we owed to the sovereign God of the universe, and his resurrection demonstrated the truth that God accepted his sacrifice in our place as full fee for our sins.
God just isn’t stymied by our slowness to talk for him.
4. Recognizing God’s Sovereignty over the Nations
However there’s another facet to the apostles’ boldness: they understood that God just isn’t solely sovereign over creation and over our circumstances however sovereign over all of the forces that oppose him. That’s the purpose of Peter’s citation of Psalm 2 in Acts 4:25–26. The traditional psalm predicted that the powers that be would vary themselves in opposition to the Lord and his Christ (or “anointed one”). The apostles acknowledged the achievement of that prophecy within the conspiracy of Herod and Pontius Pilate—the kings and rulers—with the Gentiles, the nations of Psalm 2. What’s much more stunning, although, is that now “the peoples of Israel” (Acts 4:27) have joined along with the rebellious nations of Psalm 2. God’s personal individuals have turned in opposition to him.
However the level of Peter’s citation just isn’t merely to remind us that God has proven us forward of time the best way life shall be for his followers and that on this world we must always due to this fact anticipate a lot tribulation. No, the psalm additionally goes on to declare God’s amusement in any respect this petty posturing (Ps. 2:4). When he’s prepared, he’ll sweep it apart and set up his chosen King on Mount Zion (Ps. 2:6). Quoting Psalm 118:22, Peter declares, “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has change into the cornerstone” (Acts 4:11). God is totally sovereign even over those that oppose him.
The scriptural image of God’s sovereignty may also encourage us after we are petrified of the long run, afraid of what could occur to us. Even when the very worst that we will think about involves move, Peter reminds us that the sovereign God who loves us and gave himself for us guidelines over these circumstances. That can provide us boldness to talk for him, even after we are unsure of the reception that our phrases will obtain.
5. Stuffed with the Holy Spirit
There may be one other essential component to the apostles’ boldness: after they pray, the place the place they’re assembly is shaken, and they’re all crammed with the Holy Spirit and communicate the phrase of God boldly (Acts 4:31). It’s not simply Peter and John who’re crammed with the Holy Spirit and communicate boldly: they’re all crammed with the Holy Spirit. There’s a key hyperlink within the e book of Acts between being crammed with the Holy Spirit and talking out boldly about Jesus Christ. We noticed it already in 2:4: “They usually have been all crammed with the Holy Spirit and started to talk in different tongues because the Spirit gave them utterance.”
Clearly, boldness isn’t the one results of Christians being crammed with the Spirit. An abundance of the fruits of the Spirit will even observe: love, pleasure, peace, and so forth. However boldness is a key outcome. When women and men are stuffed with the Holy Spirit, they communicate the phrase of God boldly. That implies that if we wish to see the phrase of God going out from us in energy, we have to be praying that God will fill us along with his Holy Spirit in order that we could communicate with boldness and authority the message about Jesus Christ that has been dedicated to us.
After all, the truth for many of us is that we’re not almost as daring as we ought to be in talking about Jesus. Many people flip into pumpkins each time a chance to share the gospel arises, as an alternative of talking with nice boldness and readability because the Holy Spirit provides us the phrases to say. Because of this God’s utter sovereignty in salvation ought to be an amazing consolation to all of us. God just isn’t stymied by our slowness to talk for him. The nice shepherd will usher in all his sheep, and never one in every of them shall be misplaced due to one thing we didn’t say or stated imperfectly.
But on the similar time, Jesus calls, commissions, and empowers us to talk that excellent news for him with nice boldness. You could find yourself seeing individuals transformed by your phrases; it’s possible you’ll find yourself in jail. There aren’t any ensures with God, apart from these: that God has put in his crucified and exalted anointed one, Jesus Christ, as King over all nations, and that on the final day, all those that are his will enter into glory—not one in every of his individuals shall be lacking.
This text is tailored from Turning the World Upside Down: Classes for the Church from Acts 1–8 by Iain M. Duguid.
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