ACTS 4:8-31 HOW TO HAVE SPIRIT FILLED BOLDNESS2016 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Acts 4:8-31 How To Have Spirit Filled Boldness

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2016. And we are here in Acts chapter 4 this evening. We'll be looking at verses 8 through 31 and continuing on the accounts that began in Acts chapter 3. There in Acts chapter 3, we saw Peter and John as they were headed into the temple for prayer.

As they were about to go in, there by the gate was a lame man who was begging for alms. And he caught their attention. And well, Peter realized the Lord wanted to do a work. And so he said, you know, I don't have any silver or gold, but in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk. And so the lame man was healed and he rises up and he goes walking and leaping and praising God into the temple. And he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up and he goes up

It causes quite a commotion, and so there's a gathering there in the temple, and as the crowd is gathered, the gospel is preached. Peter and John are testifying of the resurrection of Jesus and glorifying God for what has taken place. And about 2,000 men are saved during this event.

Now, as there's this great commotion there in the temple area, the religious leaders get involved. They see this commotion. They want to know what's going on. And so they take Peter and John into custody. And that's what we looked at last week as we saw the first part of Acts chapter 4. And we got to see the first part of their trial there in verses 1 through 12 last week. And we're going to kind of back up a little bit to jump back a little bit into that and then move on into what happens after this trial.

So let's start by looking at Acts chapter 4 and reading verses 8 through 13 as we continue with the account here in Acts. Acts chapter 4 verse 8 says,

Verse 11.

This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men. They marveled, and they realized that they had been with Jesus."

Here as we continue on in Acts chapter 4 this evening, the title of the message is How to Have Spirit-Filled Boldness. This is what we see demonstrated in Peter and John as they have this interaction with these religious leaders and are on trial for the healing that has taken place and the preaching that was going on there on the Temple Mount.

Now we see there in verse 13, they saw the boldness of Peter and John. And so I'd like us to consider how does that happen? How do they get that boldness? And how do you and I as believers today get boldness? As I mentioned, I know a lot of us are timid. You know, we encourage you to pass out flyers and it's like, there's no boldness. You know, where's the boldness? How do I get boldness to be able to do that? And the good news is that you don't have to generate boldness yourself.

You know, if you want to get more boldness, it doesn't mean that you have to, you know, generate that or work that out on your own. Boldness is given by the Holy Spirit. And we've been looking at the need to be filled with the Holy Spirit as we've been working our way through the book of Acts. And we've seen over and over again that it's simple to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It's not a complicated idea. It's not a complex thing. There's no big ritual that you have to perform.

The simple thing that you must do to be filled with the Holy Spirit is you must ask. We must ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit and continue to ask. And it's a continual thing that we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit over and over and over, day by day by day by day. But then the question that you might ask is, well, I've asked for the filling of the Holy Spirit. Why don't I have the boldness that I see here?

Why don't I have the boldness that's demonstrated here in Acts chapter 4? I have asked for the filling of the Holy Spirit, but where's the boldness? And how do I get the boldness that they had? Some might entertain the thoughts, well, you don't have that boldness because, you know, you're an introvert. And if you were an extrovert, then you would have the boldness. But you're an introvert, so you don't have the boldness. But I would suggest to you that's not really the case at all. That's not at all what this is talking about.

We receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the filling of the Holy Spirit by asking, but there is actually a little more to it than that. There's more to the understanding of this boldness than just asking to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Just to be clear, when you ask, you are filled with the Holy Spirit. That's God's promise.

But the difference is the capacity that you have. And I would ask you to consider in your mind a little bit, you know, some measuring cups. And there's different capacities here in these measuring cups, right? There's the quarter cup. There's the third cup. You know, there's the half cup. There's the one full cup. And it's different sizes that allow for different amounts of content to be able to be placed in them. And so as we talk about how to have capacity,

spirit-filled boldness this evening, what I would like to do is ask you to increase your capacity so that when the Holy Spirit fills you, there's more to be filled. Let me put it another way. The greater depth you have in your walk with God, the greater effect the filling of the Holy Spirit will have upon you. The deeper you go with the Lord, the greater depth you have in your relationship with God

The deeper you dig as you walk with him, as you trust him, as you take steps of faith, the deeper that you dig, well, when the Holy Spirit fills you, then there's more to be filled. There's a greater impact that can take place within you that then translates to the impact you have outside of you. And I believe that many of us, we don't have faith.

that much boldness as we're filled with the Holy Spirit, because we don't have much depth in our relationship with the Lord. If you see a lack of boldness in your life, it's not that you have to generate, you know, some type of personality change, or that you have to generate some kind of boldness, or something on your own. But if there's a lack of boldness, it means, well, you kind of need to go back to the basics in your relationship with God, and dig deep to really connect with God.

that you would have a greater capacity to be filled and used by God for his kingdom. In the parable of the talents in Matthew chapter 25, the master gave talents to each one according to their ability. And so he gave one to five, he gave one to two, he gave another one. And in Matthew 25 verse 15, it says each according to his own ability. And then he went on the journey that there was these different capacities in

that the different men had, that the different servants had to be useful, to be used for the kingdom and for this master. In a similar way, we have different capacities and it's not based upon, you know, our own goodness or good looks or how holy we are necessarily, but it really is based more on our relationship with God and how much depth is there in you, in your walk with God.

And so there's three points we'll look at this evening on how to have spirit-filled boldness. Three points really, the idea here is to help us increase our capacity to be filled with the Holy Spirit. That the Spirit would have a greater impact in us, but then also through us to the people around us. And so the first point we'll look at is here in what we just read, verses 8 through 13, and that is boldness to preach the gospel.

We need to have a spirit-filled boldness to preach the gospel. Now, how do we get that boldness? That's really the question.

As we're jumping into this account here, we see Peter standing before the Sanhedrin. It's the Jewish Supreme Court or the Jewish Congress, if you would. And so he has great reason to be intimidated. And we talked about that last week. And yet we see that Peter is not intimidated. He could have been. He would have been previously. From a human standpoint, he should have been intimidated. And yet we see that Peter is not intimidated.

But instead, he comes with great boldness and he preaches clearly the gospel and directly attributing the death of Jesus Christ to this group of elders and rulers that he is addressing.

If you'll look with me again at verse 10, he says,

Peter here speaks with great clarity and great boldness to this body of rulers, to the Sanhedrin. He lays out the gospel quite clearly that Jesus, the Messiah, you crucified him and God raised him from the dead. And it's his continued work that has resulted in this man standing before you whole.

He gives a great clear presentation of the gospel message. At the same time, he gives the accusation. He says, you guys crucified him. You're guilty. You're guilty of crucifying the savior that God has promised from the very beginning. This required great boldness. And he goes on to make another bold statement in verse 12.

He says, nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And so Peter here has great boldness to present the gospel, to present the accusation and say, you guys are responsible for this. And then to say, there is no other way of salvation except by Jesus Christ. He is the only way.

This was quite a bold statement. I mean, it's a bold statement today because there's a lot of people who would argue and say there's many ways to God and there's all these and how can you know which one and how arrogant are you to say there's only one way and you know that one way and there's lots of arguments. But think about it in Peter's context. He's talking to the Jewish Sanhedrin

who are practicing the law that was given by God on Mount Sinai, you know, to Moses. I mean, there was this strong established Jewish history that was definitely a work of God. It was legitimately a work of God. But of course, now there's the new covenant that has been introduced and the old covenant is in effect no more. So for Peter to say,

The old covenant is no effect anymore. That way of salvation is not there any longer. For him to say there's no other way of salvation except through Jesus Christ, this is a bold statement. This was, you know, speaking against what these guys believed to the core.

And what they'd known all their life as they grew up, they were taught that, you know, in order to approach God, in order to have relationship with God, you had to approach by this sacrificial system. You had to approach by these laws. And we know they had all kinds of weird twisted views, but at the same time, they had the core of that, which was established by God himself. And Peter says, that's no more. There's no way to the Father. There's no other way of salvation except by Jesus Christ.

And so Peter gives the gospel. He gives it clearly. He gives it boldly in a situation where any of us, we'd be shaking in our boots. And rightly so. But he has this boldness because he's filled with the Holy Spirit. But that's not all. Check out verse 13. Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled and they realized that they had been with Jesus.

These guys are taken aback. The Sanhedrin is taken aback. They marvel at the boldness. I mean, we can look at this and see Peter and admire his boldness. And they were doing the same. They were confused. They were perplexed. How could he have this kind of boldness? How could they speak so boldly? How could they accuse us of such things? How could they declare such things so clearly and openly? They marvel at the boldness of

And it says they perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men. They recognize they're bold, but why are they bold? They're uneducated for the Jewish leaders to have fishermen talking to them

speaking to them in this way. It was like, you know, you guys are hillbillies. What do you have to say? You know, we've gone to universities. We've graduated with honors. You know, we've got degrees. And you know, you didn't even graduate from high school. It's that kind of relationship that they would expect to have with these guys. But these guys come with great boldness and clarity. Now the religious leaders were used to contentions, even fierce contentions between each other.

We talked about it a little bit last week. The Pharisees and the Sadducees, they had strong contentions with each other. They argued back and forth, but they're not used to correction or contention from people like Peter and John. I mean, the normal people, they cowered at the religious leaders. They took, you know, what they said as the word of God in many cases. They would, you know, be...

submitted to these religious leaders. But now here's Peter and John speaking something completely different, completely contrary, with great boldness. And they're uneducated. They're untrained. Now, the disciples actually were very well trained, but they considered them uneducated and untrained because they hadn't gone through the Jewish religious education system. They weren't trained in the Jewish system, but

But instead, Jesus trained them. Now, in Jesus's training, they participated in this three-year program. And it included instruction. And they got to watch Jesus work. It also included practice as Jesus sent them out to preach. And so they had hands-on experience. They had, you know,

lectures upon lectures and parables upon parables. And then the insights, the behind the scenes of the parables, what the parables actually mean. Jesus trained them well. He taught them well and prepared them for the things that they're experiencing right now. But from the Jewish leader's perspective, these guys, they're not taught in our system. They didn't go through our schools. And so they marvel. How can they have this boldness? How are they able to speak in this way and bring this clear message to us?

Well, we can see from this passage that the boldness came because, first of all, Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit. Going back to verse 8. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders of Israel. And so Peter is bold because he's filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus told them in Acts chapter 1.

Don't go yet to start preaching the gospel because you don't have what it takes. Wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will have power to be witnesses to me.

And so Peter here is filled with the Holy Spirit. He has power to be a witness to Jesus. And that's where this boldness comes from. But I would suggest to you that it's combined with the end of verse 13. It's not just the filling of the Holy Spirit by itself isolated. But then at the end of verse 13, it says they realized that they had been with Jesus. So there's a combination that's happening. The disciples had been with Jesus for the past three and a half years.

And during that time, they've been digging deep. They've been investing in their spiritual walk. And a lot of it, they didn't understand. Remember, you go through the gospels and it says, you know, the disciples didn't understand this until after Jesus had resurrected. A lot of it, they didn't understand. They didn't get it yet, but they were with Jesus, being instructed. And this time with Jesus developing them, prepared them so that now as they're filled with the Holy Spirit, they've got a greater capacity to

for the work of God than they ever knew was even possible. The Holy Spirit had something to fill because they had been with Jesus. It's so important for us to have time with Jesus, to spend time with Jesus, to have a real relationship with Jesus. You know, a lot of people struggle in a relationship with Jesus because you don't always see the results right away.

And so it's like, well, I tried that Jesus thing. I tried that daily Bible reading. I tried that. And there wasn't much effect. You know, I just, I didn't really see much change. But it takes time for us to develop that relationship with Jesus. And we invest in that relationship with Jesus for a multitude of reasons. But here's one reason. That is so that later we can be filled with the Holy Spirit and effective. That we can have boldness to preach the gospel to

Because we have developed a real and meaningful relationship with Jesus. There's a visual that I like to consider often for my own self, and I've shared it, I'm sure, many times with you as well. In 2 Kings chapter 3, the king of Israel, the king of Judah have joined together. They're going to go to battle, but they're not really that prepared. And so they start marching off, and they kind of get a couple days away, and they realize we don't have any water. We're thirsty. We're thirsty.

And so they seek out a word from the Lord. A prophet says, okay, here's what the Lord wants you to do. In verse 16 of 2 Kings 3, he said, thus says the Lord, make this valley full of ditches. Now, if you think about it, right? If you're thirsty and you've been thirsty for a couple of days, the last thing you want to do is go digging in the dirt because you're already thirsty and, you know, the dust is going to be everywhere. And you can imagine talking yourself out of digging ditches when you're already thirsty, right?

But that's the instruction that the Lord gave them. Make this valley full of ditches. But along with that command was the promise. Verse 17, for thus says the Lord, you shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain, yet that valley shall be filled with water so that your cattle and your animals may drink. God says, I'm going to do something miraculous. You dig the ditches and I'll fill them.

And I'm going to do it miraculously. You're not going to see the rain. You're not going to see the wind. You're not going to see a storm come through. But I'm going to fill those ditches. Now you can understand here, if they dug only a few ditches, they would have only had a little bit of water. But if they were obedient and made the valley full of ditches, they would have an abundance of water. It was really up to them. If they would dig the ditches that the Lord told them to dig, then they would have the resources that they needed to have.

But you see, it was a command that was followed up by the promise. And as you read in the account, God made good on his promise like he always does. And he filled the ditches with water. In a similar way, God gives us a command to invest in time with him.

to develop a real relationship with him, to walk with him. And many times as you're doing that, as you're walking with the Lord, as you're seeking to trust the Lord, as you're reading the word of God, you're crying out to God in prayer and you don't have much result immediately that you can see. And maybe you can relate. Sometimes it's like you're digging ditches and you're like, I'm thirsty. But sometimes

I'm digging ditches and I'm not finding water. Where's, you know, I'm expecting a well or a fountain or something to spring up at some point. Where's the water? And many times we're digging the ditches so that later God can fill them. But a lot of people get discouraged in the digging the ditches portion. Relationship with God requires some diligence, requires some discipline. You need to walk with God on a daily basis and

You need to be connecting with God and developing and learning to talk to God and learning to hear from God. And as you develop that relationship with the Lord, God's promise is that he will fill that. Remember the promise in Isaiah chapter 55. God's word will accomplish what he sets it forth to accomplish. It will accomplish what he sets it forth to accomplish. Guaranteed time with the Lord.

Spending time in service, it's not wasted time. If you walk out of here tonight and you think, I don't know how any of that applies to me, and I don't really think I got much out of that, that doesn't mean that it was a wasted time. You're digging ditches. I mean, maybe the Lord's speaking to you, and it's meaningful, and you're like, all right, praise the Lord, great. The ditches are being filled right now, but maybe for some it's just, I don't get it. It doesn't make sense. I've

It's okay. It's okay if it doesn't make sense. It's okay if the Lord's not filling the ditches yet because we dig the ditches in preparation and God will fill it. And so we need to be engaged. We need to be consistent in our walk with God and our time with God and developing that relationship with God because the greater depth you have in your walk with God, then later when God pours out his Holy Spirit upon you, the greater effect the Holy Spirit's filling will have in you and then through you.

And so as we talk about how to have that spirit-filled boldness, we see here Peter and John, they had boldness to preach the gospel because, first of all, they had been with Jesus. They had a strong relationship with the Lord. And now as the Holy Spirit has filled them, they have a boldness to bring forth the gospel with great clarity. How to have boldness? Increase your capacity to

to be filled with the Holy Spirit by investing time with Jesus. Make sure you have a strong relationship with the Lord. Make sure you have a close connection to God. Make sure he's your best friend. Make sure he's who you wake up for. Make sure he's who you go to bed thinking about. Make sure he is the passion of your life. And when the Holy Spirit fills you, you will have boldness to preach the gospel. The greater depth you have in your walk with God, the greater effect the Holy Spirit will have upon you.

Well, moving on to the second point, we're going to look now at verses 14 through 22. And that is that boldness to share your experience. How to have boldness, how to be filled with the Spirit and experience this boldness. Well, that boldness works out in a boldness of sharing your own testimony and your own experience with God. And how do we develop that kind of boldness? Let's check out verses 14 through 22. Here's what it says.

And seeing the man who had been healed standing among them, they could say nothing against it. But when they had commanded them to go outside of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, What shall we do to these men? For indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. Verse 17. But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them,

Verse 21. Verse 21.

So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done. For the man was over 40 years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed. Now we get to see the Sanhedrin's response to this bold declaration of the gospel that Peter and John have presented. And what we see in their response is something that remains true today.

And that is that genuine testimony is irrefutable. Genuine testimony is irrefutable. It's not refutable. They are not able to fight against the testimony of this miracle that has taken place. Many times we talk about the power for you and I of our own testimony. And your testimony is a powerful tool. Absolutely. But

It has to be genuine. Fake testimony is easily refutable. And sometimes people make that mistake. They exaggerate. They boast of things that God actually hasn't done. And there's no power in that. But when you have the truth, it's powerful. And that's what we see demonstrated here. In verse 14, it says, and seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. They could not refute the miracle. A miracle has taken place.

And they can't refute it. And it's frustrating to them. You can see that here in the text. He's standing right there. They could say nothing against it. They couldn't say, oh, that guy's still lame. He's just faking it because he's standing right there. They can't refute it. And so it says they tell the disciples, hey, you guys go outside. Wait a second. We got to talk amongst ourselves.

And when they talk amongst themselves, in verse 16, it says, Notice what these religious leaders are saying. This notable miracle is evident to all. Everybody knows that this miracle has taken place. And we cannot deny it. In other words, we would deny it if we could, but

But it's too obvious of a miracle. We can't deny it. This completely illustrates they knew the truth. They absolutely knew the truth. They knew this was a work of God done in the name of Jesus Christ. They knew the truth and they rejected it. They weren't like skeptical, you know, like, I don't know if Jesus was a real person. I don't know if he was really, you know, just more than a good man or, you know, these were the guys who crucified Jesus, first of all. But

They knew what was going on here. They knew a work, a powerful work of God was done in the name of Jesus Christ. And rather than submit to that and accept that and believe in Jesus and turn to Jesus, they decided to fight against the Lord. But here's the thing. Even though they were bent on fighting against the Lord, they could not refute the miracle. They couldn't fight against that. They could say nothing against it.

Because it was a genuine work. And everybody knew there has been a radical transformation. But they don't want it to spread. So verse 17 says, as they're conferring amongst themselves, they say, but so it spreads no further among the people. Let us severely threaten them that from now on they speak to no man in this name.

So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus. You know, just in case they accidentally say to another lame man, in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk. You know, we don't want a bunch of people getting healed in the name of Jesus. So just don't use the name of Jesus. Don't speak in that name. Don't teach in that name. They couldn't refute the miracle. And now here we see they could not refute the resurrection. They could not refute that Jesus was alive, that his name was powerful because he is the son of God who lives.

was raised from the dead. I like what Thomas Constable says about this. He says, the simplest way to discredit the apostles would have been to produce Jesus's body or in some other way prove to the people that Jesus had not risen. But they couldn't disprove that Jesus was alive. They couldn't refute the resurrection. And so instead, all they can do is say, don't use that name. You know, don't say that word. It's all that they could do. They couldn't fight against the truth.

That testimony was genuine. It was powerful. They couldn't refute the miracle. They couldn't refute the resurrection and they couldn't refute the result. In verse 21, it says, so when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done. It goes on in the next verse to tell us this guy was 40 years old. He was older than 40 years old. He'd never walked since birth. He's over 40 years old. And this miracle has taken place.

And the result is that they all, the people glorified God for what had been done. When it's a genuine work of God, who gets the glory? God gets the glory. And they couldn't refute that. Peter and John weren't taking the credit. They weren't being glorified. They weren't starting, you know, the Peter and John healing ministry. It was a work of God that was pointed to God so that people would glorify God. That was the result. And the religious leaders could not refute that.

Because it was such a great work that the people glorified God, they couldn't punish Peter and John the way they wanted to. All they could do is threaten them. They could bark really loud, but they had no bite. That's all they could do because it was a genuine work of God. They could threaten, scold, intimidate all they wanted, but it would not stop Peter and John. They respond in verse 19 and 20. It says in verse 19, but Peter and John answered and said to them,

whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. Peter and John respond back and say, hey, we know what God's told us to do. You're telling us to do something different. You figure out amongst yourselves if it's right for us to obey you rather than obeying God. We've already made our decision. We're going to obey God. How did they have such boldness? How could they speak against the Sanhedrin in that way?

Verse 20 says, Notice what Peter and John say. We don't have a choice. We can't do anything else but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Peter and John are speaking from their own experience.

Later on, when Peter's writing 1 Peter, he says, we are eyewitnesses. He says it again. We saw, we heard. It's our experience that we're speaking of. And we don't have a choice but to speak from the experience that we have with God. And you can see that same type of thing happening here in the lame man. It's not really highlighted that much, but you know, the lame man has great boldness here too. Again, in verse 14 says,

It says, Now, on the one hand, you see here the guy was standing with them. So, you know, the miracle took, you know, overnight. You know, can you imagine waking up the next morning? He's like testing out his legs. Do they still work? You know, I'd probably be doing that. But not just that he was standing, that the miracle continued to work, but that he was standing with them. That's bold. That's bold.

Here's this lame man standing with these two guys in front of the Jewish Supreme Court, the Jewish Congress, who just a few days earlier had crucified Jesus. These guys are in big trouble, but he stands with them. It's boldness because he's standing with them from his own experience. He received the healing. It was a genuine work of God. And that's the point. Genuine testimony is irrefutable. And when you have the truth, it's powerful.

If it was a fake healing, it would be easily refutable. If it was a fake resurrection, it would have been easily refutable. But they have the truth and they speak from their own experience, their own experiences with God. And so there's a boldness that comes. Now, how do you have this boldness to share your experience? How do you have boldness to share your testimony? Well, similar to the first point, you need to increase your capacity and you need to have real genuine experiences with God.

You need to invest yourself in time with God. You need to invest yourself in steps of faith in response to what God has said. You need to have some experience with walking with God and doing what God has called you to do. You need to have experience with God and all the realm of the spiritual life that that applies to because, well, as you have experience with God, then you have something to say when you have an opportunity to share your experience.

And the Holy Spirit will fill you and you'll be able to share it with great boldness because it's the truth. Can you say God has changed my life with great boldness? Is that a genuine testimony? You know, many times people share fake testimonies, testimonies that they hope will be true one day. It's important.

that we have genuine experience with God, that we have genuine encounters with God, that we allow God to work real miracles in us so that we are then able to have boldness to share our own experience. Now, there's a little bit of a word of caution I'd like to share along with this, and that is, please understand that my experience is not an absolute truth for everyone.

And sometimes we take it too far as we talk about our own experiences. My experience is powerful and important. It's an important tool in what God wants to use in my life, but it's not the answer to everybody's questions. My experience is not the standard for judgment or truth or spiritual life. Why do I share that? Well, here's how it often looks as people talk amongst one another. Oh, you're struggling with that sin? I used to struggle with that sin, but then I prayed and I never struggled with that sin or addiction again.

You must not be really genuine in your prayer because you still struggle with that. Because my experience was I prayed and then it was gone. I didn't ever crave that again. I didn't ever deal with that sin again. That's my experience. I don't know why it's not happening with you. You must not be really pursuing God. You must not really love God because you didn't have the same experience that I had. Now, listen, when it comes to sanctification, when it comes to deliverance from things like that,

That's not a promise from God for all believers that instantly, immediately, everything is taken away from you. In fact, quite the contrary. Many times, God leaves struggles in our lives as part of our development to trust in him and walk with him. And so we need to be careful that we, you know, it's like a power tool. It's a powerful tool, right? But it's also can be dangerous if it's used wrong.

In the same way, your experience is powerful, but use it the way it's designed to be used to say, this is what God did. This is what God can do. I don't know if that's what God wants for you, but that's not the point. The point is, look, God is real. He's alive, and he did this work in my life. Now, if you proclaim and say, God set me free and delivered me from sin, you better be telling the truth and be genuine about it and not be like hiding that sin so that, you know,

Later on, when you're found out, you'll destroy that powerful testimony that you had because it wasn't genuine. It wasn't true. But when it's true, again, verse 14, they saw the lame man standing with them. They could not say anything against it. It's a powerful tool. Peter says, we cannot but speak the things which we've seen and heard. We've had real encounter with God. We have real experience with God. We have no other choice. The power is at work in us.

I always like to refer back to John chapter 9, verse 25, the blind man who is healed by Jesus, questioned by the religious leaders. How could he heal you on the Sabbath? He must be a sinner because he healed you on the Sabbath. Then he says, whether he's a sinner or not, I do not know. One thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see. That's the power of our own testimony, of our own experience. It's not the answer to every question.

And I can't answer every question. And I don't have the answer for all your issues and situations. But here's one thing I could tell you. I once was blind, but now I see. God has changed my life. And when you have a real experience with God like that, the Holy Spirit will fill you and you'll be bold in sharing your encounter with God. Well, finally, verses 23 through 31 gives us point number three.

how to have spirit-filled boldness and specifically boldness to speak the word of God. Verse 23, it says, and being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them.

Verse 27. Verse 28.

Verse 31. Verse 31.

As this trial concludes and Peter and John are threatened and let go, they go back to the church. At this time, it's only in Jerusalem where the church is. The church hasn't spread beyond that. So all the believers that exist are all there in Jerusalem. They go back to that gathering. Now there's more than 5,000 of them. And as they go back to their own companions, they report what the chief priests and elders had said to them.

They told us to not speak in the name of Jesus, to not teach about Jesus anymore. So what does the church do in response? Verse 24 is beautiful. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord. They respond to the threat with prayer. In one accord, with one voice, they joined together. They're united in heart saying, Lord, we need your help in this situation. Their prayer is interesting.

The first part of their prayer, they quote from Psalm chapter 2. They're in verse 24 or 25 and 26. Why do the nations rage and the people plot vain things? It's a Psalm, Psalm chapter 2, talking about the nations plotting against God and the Messiah. They go back to the word of God. They seek God according to his word. In verse 27, it says, this was fulfilled.

They plotted against the Messiah, the Gentiles and the Jews, Herod and Pontius Pilate. They all plotted together. But then what's interesting is verse 28. Here's the Jews. Here's the Romans. They're plotting together. Here's the Jewish leader, Herod. There's the Roman leader, Pontius Pilate. They're plotting together to accomplish what? Their own wicked desires? No, verse 28 says, to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined to be done. This is amazing.

Here's what they pray. God, you're big and the nations have fought against you, but in their fighting against you, they've accomplished your purposes. This is how big God is. He takes the fights of nations. He takes even the people who are fighting against God and he uses that to accomplish his own purposes. And so God, since you're able to do that, since you're able to use your

this antagonism against you to accomplish what you want, Lord, here's our prayer in verse 29. Look on their threats and grant to your servants that with boldness they may speak your word. Lord, would you use this for your purposes too? Would you let this be a furthering of your kingdom? Give us all boldness that they may speak your word. And would you join with that with miracles and signs and wonders?

The commentator William McDonald points out, their own personal safety was not the important thing. Fearlessness in preaching was paramount. Not, Lord, keep us safe. Not, Lord, protect us. But, Lord, give us boldness to do what you've commanded us to do in the face of the threats that have been spoken against us. Give us boldness to speak your word. How do we have this kind of boldness? How do we get this kind of boldness?

to speak the word of God in face of threats like this. James tells us in James chapter four, verse three, he says, you ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your own pleasures. I wonder sometimes if we don't have boldness because our motivations are not really correct. They're not really right. We don't have boldness because we've got some other things in our hearts and minds. We're not sold out for the work of God, but here we're

They're not concerned about their life. They're not concerned about their health. They're not concerned about what's going to happen next. They're concerned about being faithful to what God has called them to do. Lord, we can't run from what you've called us to do. We can't run from delivering the gospel message. We can't run from bringing forth your word. But now there's this opposition. So Lord, give us boldness that even though we're threatened, that your word will still go forth. And God answers this prayer in verse 31.

What did they pray for? They prayed for boldness to speak the word of God. And what did God respond with? He responded with the filling of the Holy Spirit. And the result was they spoke the word of God with boldness. Now, something I'd like to point out is

It says, when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. This wasn't a meeting of the apostles. This wasn't just Pastor Jerry, Pastor David, and Pastor Pule sitting down, having a meeting and praying. This was a Wednesday night service and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they all spoke the word of God with boldness. How were they able to speak the word of God with boldness? First of all, how did they know the word?

Well, remember a couple of chapters back, Acts chapter two, verse 42, those who believed continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine, as well as fellowship and breaking of bread and prayers. But they knew the word of God. They were students of the word of God. They studied the word of God so that now as the Holy Spirit fills them, they have reservoirs that they've been digging by continuing steadfastly in the apostles doctrine.

So that the Holy Spirit is able to come upon them in great power to bring forth the gospel message as well as the rest of the word of God. Listen, we live in a society, in a nation that needs to hear the word of God and not with what some people call boldness is just brashness and rudeness. Not that kind of boldness, but the boldness that comes from love. That's what people need. People need boldness.

to have the word of God brought to them with bold love. And that comes. How do we have this kind of spirit-filled boldness to be able to speak the word of God to the world around us? First of all, we need to increase our capacity to be filled with the Holy Spirit by continuing steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine. Every one of us, we need to be students of the word of God, to learn the word of God so that as the Holy Spirit fills us,

We've got reservoirs dug out, ready, prepared. And then the Holy Spirit is able to use that to accomplish the work of the kingdom of God. It's not really that different than me getting up here to teach a message. Now, there's a lot of times where the Holy Spirit fills the gaps, where I didn't know what I was going to say there, or I didn't have that prepared. But there's things that he's doing. And so he gives me things to say at the moment.

But if that's all that I relied upon, you would understand, you know, we would be in trouble if, well, I'll just Holy Ghost it, you know, as was often said once before. Just get up and teach. I don't need to read. I don't need to study. I don't need to prepare. I'm just going to get up and the Holy Spirit will give me the words to share. That's not a reasonable expectation. That's not the way that God works.

He does add on to the things that were studied and prepared. And that is definitely a genuine work of the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit's at work ahead of time in helping to dig the ditches so that when I get up here to teach, he fills them and then he uses them and it's more effective for his kingdom. The same is true in all of our life. We need to be people who are invested in the word of God, who know the word of God so that the Holy Spirit can fill us.

Jesus promises disciples that when the Holy Spirit comes, he'll remind you of the things that I taught you, as well as teach you all things. There's that both. The Holy Spirit's going to give you what you need in the moment, but that's not all that there is. And that's why I'm saying here in this time, it's not just about being filled with the Holy Spirit because, well, maybe you only have a quarter cup, you know, available. That's not much for you to be bold and effective for the kingdom of God. You need to increase your capacity to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

So that you have a boldness to preach the gospel, a boldness to share your own experience and testimony, and a boldness to speak the word of God. How do we have that boldness? Well, it starts in the preparation, investing in time with Jesus, having real experience with God and learning the word of God. We're digging ditches. We're preparing ourselves so that we'll be the servants who are entrusted with more talents and

Referring back to Matthew chapter 25, the five, the two, the one talents, according to their ability, according to the capacity, according to how they had developed in the same way, we get to choose how useful we are for the kingdom of God by how well we prepare ahead of time. Increase your capacity to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And then when the Holy Spirit fills you, because you've spent time with Jesus, because you have real experience with God, and because you know the word of God, you can be filled with the Holy Spirit.

you'll have a boldness and an effectiveness for the kingdom of God. Amen? Let's pray. Lord, as we present our hearts to you this evening, I pray for each one of us that you would help us, Lord, to be serious about our relationship with you. And Lord, that it would not be on the back burner, that it would not be something on the side, but Lord, that truly you would be the passion and pursuit of our lives. Help us, God, to put you first. And Lord, I pray for us as a congregation.

Lord, I pray that you would help us to raise our voice to you with one accord, recognizing your sovereignty, recognizing your work. And Lord, would you grant to us, your servants, that with all boldness we may speak your word. And Lord, would you bring along miracles and signs? Would you transform lives along with the message that is brought forth by us? Lord, that your word may be known, that lives may be touched.

that eternity may be secured for those who do not know you. Lord, give us boldness. Fill us with your Holy Spirit. But also, Lord, help us to prepare, Lord, that we could become more effective for you and for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.