Acts 4:1-31
“Praying
for Boldness”
Some things are worth working your courage up for. Your friends know you like someone. They even think she might be a pretty good
match for you. But you’re a little
shy. “Go on,” they tell you, “ask her out. Go on!”
But you can’t just walk up to her, so you decide to call her later. And you pick up the phone, and just hold the
receiver in your hand, too frozen to dial.
But I tell you what, there’s one woman I’m glad I worked up the courage
to ask out. (Well, I never exactly asked
her out, but that’s another story . . .)
Some things are worth working your courage up for. “Okay, son,” my mom said (my dad was way too
nervous to say it), “why don’t you drive for a while?” Oh, I wanted too. I’d been itching to. But once I actually sat down on that side of
the car, it felt pretty different—a lot more nervous over there than I’d
expected. “Well, go on,” my mom
said. “You know where the key is,
right?” “Yeah, I know . . .” And I closed my eyes, swallowed hard, and
turned the ignition. Well, it wasn’t
easy. Driving didn’t come naturally to
me. But I sure am glad I learned.
Some things are worth working your courage up for. Like talking about Jesus. Like inviting people to worship or small
group Bible study. Like telling people
what a difference God has made in your life.
Well yeah, there are those things,
Pastor. But couldn’t we talk about other
things worth working our courage up for?
Well, we could. But
those seem to be the things that today’s scripture readings would have us focus
on. You’ll remember that Peter and John told
a lame man in the name of Jesus Christ to stand up and walk, and he did. Now you might think that everyone would be
happy and excited about that. And many
were—5000 people believed in Jesus that day.
But the people in charge—the responsible sorts--were annoyed, threatened. “Who told you you could do this?” they asked. Look here--healing and preaching don’t fall
under your committee’s job description.
And did you check with the pastor first?” So they told them: “No more!
No more speaking or teaching in the name of Jesus.”
Well, no sooner were Peter and John out of the courthouse
than they got together with their friends and started praying for even more
boldness to speak and teach in the name of Jesus. And they did.
They talked about Jesus and got thrown into jail. They talked about Jesus and Stephen was
stoned to death. They talked about Jesus
and people believed, and lives were changed, and the world was turned upside
down.
There is a division of labor here. There are deeds of power—healings and
wonders. And there words that share and
draw attention to these deeds of power.
The deeds of power, that’s God’s work.
God heals, God saves, God breaks down barriers between people. And we . . . tell about it.
·
So
in the story, God made the lame man walk.
Peter and John told everyone about it, in the name of Jesus Christ.
·
And
in our church, God has brought all kinds of people together—young and old, gay
and straight, neighborhood folks and friends from the suburbs, people who other
than Jesus and this church, wouldn’t know each other or have anything to do
with each other. God does that. We get to tell about it, in the name of Jesus
Christ.
·
God
has led our youth to feed homeless folks and go on mission trips and visit a
nursing home every month. God has done
that. Our job is to tell others about
it, in the name of Jesus Christ.
·
One
day God caused a suicidal man named Mark Huhn to walk into this church, and
here he claimed his faith, his soul was healed, and he is alive and well and
engaged to be married. God did
that. We can tell about it, in the name
of Jesus Christ.
The word “boldness” occurs three times in this chapter of
Acts. It’s really the main word in this
chapter. For the disciples it was
boldness in the face of persecution.
They could be brought up on charges for talking about Jesus, beaten,
thrown in jail. The boldness we need and
pray for is different from that, but it is boldness all the same. We need boldness in the face of a yawning
apathy about faith—sometimes other people’s apathy, sometimes our own. We need boldness in the face of rejection—we
may hear ten no’s for every time someone says yes to our invitation. Whatever it is exactly that we need boldness
in the face of, surely we would all agree that we could use a little more
boldness in talking about Jesus.
Tony Campolo has written a wonderful book on urban ministry
called Revolution and Renewal: How
Churches Are Saving our Cities. He writes
about all kinds of things churches can do to have an impact on their
communities—forming partnerships with universities and agencies, holding town
meetings, creating jobs through micro-industries, helping alleviate crime and
fear. The church can do those things and
more. But first, he says, but first, you
have to know your neighbors: “Visiting
door to door is where we have to begin” (p. 64). Campolo says that urban pastors often object
to this, saying that the doors of their churches are always open to any new
people who may want to come. And are they coming? Campolo asks. I didn’t think so. You see, Jesus didn’t tell his disciples to
wait until people came to them. He
commanded them to go out into the world and invite people to come in.
Campolo is right, of course.
Oh, we can make all sorts of excuses.
But we know he’s right. So how
would we get that kind of boldness? Boldness
to go out door to door and get to know our neighbors? Boldness to tell them what God has done for
us and invite them to come and see? How
would we get that kind of boldness?
Two ways, I think.
One way is that we are reshaped into bolder people gradually over
time. The youth group didn’t just
suddenly become comfortable distributing sandwiches at Faith Mission. Mary motivated them over several years to
step out of their comfort zone, with little baby steps at first. A lot of us didn’t have what it takes to be
in leadership in the church or to pray in public—until 34 weeks of Disciples
Bible Study shaped us in new ways. We
are not here in the church just to commiserate with each other; we are here to
inspire and encourage each other to grow in confidence and courage. I’d hate to think that I’ve been here twelve
years and left the church no more bold than when I found it.
So boldness does come gradually, as part of the maturing of
our faith. But boldness also comes right
now, even today, as an answer to our fervent praying. When the disciples faced persecution in Acts
4, when they knew it was going to be hard to speak up for Jesus with the threat
of jail hanging over their heads, they prayed.
“And now, Lord, they prayed, look at their threats, and grant to your
servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand
to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy
servant Jesus.” And when they had
prayed, it says, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word
of God with boldness.
They prayed for boldness.
And their prayer was answered—not some day, not next year, not even
tomorrow, but as soon as they were done praying.
So here we go, Church.
We’re going to pray. Will you
reach out and touch someone near you while we pray—hold their hand or lay a
hand on their shoulder. Let us pray:
“And now, Lord, grant to your servants to speak your Word
with all boldness. Grant to us to speak
your Word with all boldness. You have
done wonders and great deeds in our midst—breaking down barriers and accepting
all people in your church, reviving in us a sense of mission and service to
others, comforting the lonely and saving the despondent. Now grant to your servants to speak your Word
with all boldness. Grant to us to speak
your Word with all boldness. In the name
of your holy servant Jesus, Amen.