Bold Moves & A Big God
Acts 4
bold·ness (noun)
1. willingness to take risks and act innovatively, confidence, or courage.
Where does supernatural boldness come from?
1. Boldness Expects Opposition
Acts 4:1–3 (ESV)
1 And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them,
2 greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
3 And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.
God works through your courage, not your comfort.
2. Boldness Anticipates Effectiveness
Acts 4:4 (ESV)
But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.
When there is the most pressure to be silent, there is also the most potential power.
3. Boldness Pursues God’s presence
Acts 4:5–7 (ESV)
5 On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem,
6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family.
7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”
Acts 4:13 (ESV)
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
4. Boldness Accelerates Through Prayer
Acts 4:23–28 (ESV)
23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
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.
Where there is boldness, there will be breakthrough
Acts 4:29–30 (NLT)
29 And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word.
30 Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
"Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men and women. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks."
—Phillip Brooks, Puritan
Acts 4:31 (ESV)
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.
