{"id":318,"date":"2014-06-29T17:58:31","date_gmt":"2014-06-29T16:58:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=318"},"modified":"2014-06-29T17:58:31","modified_gmt":"2014-06-29T16:58:31","slug":"praying-for-boldness-acts-423-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=318","title":{"rendered":"Praying for Boldness Acts 4:23-31"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bible encourages Christians to pray in very many places. But in the New Testament we don\u2019t actually have many examples of the prayers Christians used. Here is one of them!
\nWhat the disciples didn\u2019t pray for
\nThey didn\u2019t pray that the opposition would stop. If we are truly following Jesus sometimes life will get hard. Sometimes people will react against the difference Jesus makes in our lives. Sometimes our words of testimony will cause people to turn against us. There have been times in my life when standing up for Jesus has got me into trouble and I am sure that will be your experience as well. But the first Christians didn\u2019t complain when that happened to them. Peter and John had been thrown into jail. The ruling council of Jerusalem the Sanhedrin had threatened them. When they continues to preach very soon the apostles would be flogged and soon after Stephen would be martyred. But they don\u2019t pray to be delivered from opposition and persecution. They prayed for boldness to be able to preach better. We use the phrase \u201casking for trouble.\u201d The apostles\u2019 prayers were certainly \u201casking for trouble\u201d!
\nThe believers\u2019 prayer
\n24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. \u201cSovereign Lord,\u201d they said, \u201cyou made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
\nThey prayed to the Sovereign Lord \u2013 they recognised that God was Lord of all. Caesar was not Lord. The Sanhedrin certainly weren\u2019t in charge. Jesus was King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Almighty God was Sovereign on the throne of heaven and earth.
\nThey prayed to the Creator God \u2013 who made heaven and earth and sea. God who spoke into the darkness and there was light. God who created every living creature from nothing and God who continues to sustain every living creature.
\nThey prayed to the God who shapes the future
\n25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
\n\u201c \u2018Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 26\tThe kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.\u2019
\n27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
\nThe apostles recognized that the Sovereign and Almighty Creator God was in control of history. Even when they were experiencing persecution, they recognized that nothing could possibly happen without God knowing about it in advance and nothing could possibly happen to them unless God permitted it. When we pray, let us never forget who we are praying to. The Sovereign Lord who holds us safe in the palm of His hand. God who is in complete control of everything He has create, even if we cannot recognize that at the time.<\/p>\n

Prayer to be able to speak with great boldness <\/p>\n

29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.\u201d <\/p>\n

Remember that during the last week of His early ministry in Jerusalem, Jesus had promised that the Holy Spirit would give them words to speak on occasions when they were called to preach the gospel and to testify about Him.
\nMark 13 9 \u201cYou must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. 10 And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. 11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.
\nLuke\u2019s version of that saying in Luke 21:15 Jesus says, 15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.
\nSo in Acts 4 the disciples are simply claiming those promises of words and wisdom and the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
\nJust before his Ascension Jesus had made this promise to His followers.
\nActs 1 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.\u201d
\nIn Acts 4 the believers were simply claiming that promise of power to be His witnesses for Jesus, power from on High from the Holy Spirit.
\nPrayer for more signs and wonders \u2013 even though it was the miraculous healing of the lame man which had got them into trouble in the first place.<\/p>\n

What happened
\n31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
\nSpeaking with boldness in preaching the gospel. And speaking with boldness testifying to what they themselves had witnessed of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and of the miracles which were happening in Jesus\u2019s name.
\nActs 4 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.
\nAnd we will read in later chapters how not only that powerful preaching but also those signs and wonders continued as the Early Church spread and grew. But will you notice something very significant in the way that prayer was answered. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
\nThey were ALL filled with the Holy Spirit. Not just Peter and John. Not just the apostles. But ALL of the believers received the power to speak the word of God with boldness. Now some of those present would have been among the 3000 new Christians who had been saved on the day of Pentecost. Some would have been among the 2000 who had been saved since as a consequence of the healing of the lame man. But Peter and John and the rest of the eleven apostles were also there. Many others who had been present when the Holy Spirit fell on the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost were there. And we read ALL these people were filled with the Holy Spirit.
\nSo we conclude that at least some of those who were filled with the Spirit on this occasion had already been filled with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Back in Acts 2 we read this.
\n2\tWhen the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
\n Here in Acts 4 we read this. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
\nExactly the same words \u2013 they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. In one case they all began to exercise the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues to praise God and in the other they all began to speak the word of God with boldness, and that may well have included praising God in tongues as well. But on both occasions we read that everybody there was filled with the Holy Spirit. Why does this matter? Because traditional conservative Evangelical theology will tell you that a believer receives the Holy Spirit the moment they become a Christian and are born again. Often that once and for all arrival of the Holy Spirit will be undramatic and even unseen. On the other hand traditional Pentecostal theology will tell you that a believer needs to receive the Holy Spirit at a separate time, often a long time after their conversion. Pentecostals give different labels to this once and for all subsequent experience including \u201cbaptism in the Spirit\u201d or \u201cthe Second Blessing\u201d and some give the impression that receiving the Holy Spirit in this way lifts the believer to a new level of Christian experience. All through 1970s and 1980s different corners of the church argued bitterly over which understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit was correct, although actually what they mostly disagreed about was the language people were using to describe their experiences of the Holy Spirit. In their own ways Evangelicals and Pentecostals are both right and both wrong. Because what we clearly see here in Acts 4 is a group of believers being filled with the Spirit, EVEN THOUGH at least some of them has been filled with the Spirit in Acts 2. It is clearly possible for believers to be filled with the Spirit on more than one occasion!
\nEvangelicals are correct to say that God gives the Holy Spirit to every believer at the moment they are born again. Pentecostals are correct to say that Christians can be filled with the Spirit on an occasion subsequent to their conversion. Because Acts 4 makes clear that Christians can be filled with the Spirit not just once, but twice, and three times, and indeed probably a hundred times!
\nPentecostals and charismatics will sometimes ask the question, \u201cHave you been filled with the Spirit?\u201d The more helpful question is this. \u201cAre you filled with the Spirit right now?\u201d Somebody asked the great evangelist Moody, \u201cHave you been filled with the Spirit?\u201d He replied, \u201cI have been filled with the Spirit, but I leak.\u201d
\nIn Ephesians 5:18 Paul writes, \u201cBe filled with the Spirit.\u201d Actually sometimes Greek is a more precise language than English and what Paul says does not mean, \u201cBe filled with the Spirit once.\u201d The command is present and continuous. \u201cKeep on being filled with the Spirit.\u201d In other words, don\u2019t live on past experiences. Don\u2019t think to yourself, \u201cBecause I was filled with the Spirit back in 1983 J am doing fine thank you very much.\u201d What matters is, are you filled with the Spirit today? \u201cKeep on being filled with the Spirit.\u201d
\nThis account encourages us to pray the same prayer as those first disciples prayed. To pray for boldness to be able to preach the gospel and to be witnesses for Jesus. It encourages us to pray, expecting God to fill us with the Holy Spirit in the same way as those first Christians were filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with power from on High. And it doesn\u2019t matter if we would say that God has filled us with His Holy Spirit before or not. It doesn\u2019t matter whether we would call ourselves Evangelicals or Pentecostals or Charismatics. All that matters is that we want to be bold for Christ. We want God\u2019s power to be witnesses for Jesus. If that is what we truly desire, then God WILL fill us with His Holy Spirit. Jesus has made this promise in Luke 11:13 \u201cIf you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bible encourages Christians to pray in very many places. But in the New Testament we don\u2019t actually have many examples of the prayers…<\/span><\/p>\n

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