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In this sermon, Sam Morris explores how the Holy Spirit empowers believers with boldness to proclaim the gospel despite opposition, focusing on Acts chapter 4. The teaching highlights God's faithful provision and how the world should visibly see Jesus in believers through their bold testimony.
Bellevue Baptist Church Middle School Ministry
Amen, amen. I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail. Come on, let's give the Lord a hand for that, that we can praise Him for being our Savior, praise Him for never failing. If you have a Bible, go ahead and hold it up in the air. Let me see it, come on. Let me see all of them. Come on, that's what I'm talking about. Put it in your lap and open up to Acts chapter four. Open up to Acts chapter four, and while you do that, I need us to do a little review, all right? Who was here last week? Come on, y'all remember what we talked about? What did we talk about last week? We talked about, yes, our sermon series is more than meets the eye. What was the first thing that we talked about? That God's Spirit creates what? Community, absolutely. And we talked about three different truths about the heart of the believer that contribute to that community. Do you remember what they were? The heart of the believer is devoted to? Growth, come on, what's the next one? I didn't hear it. You had your hand up? What was it? Yes, motivated to generosity. A radical kind of generosity. And what was the last one? Right here. Oh, not you, oh, I'm sorry, my bad, my bad. Right there. Gratitude, yes, it's moved to gratitude. So when believers are filled with the Holy Spirit, they have changed hearts, and because of that, they have changed attitudes, desires, perspectives on life and how community is supposed to be. And tonight, we're gonna be looking at how the Holy Spirit not only changes our perspective, not only changes us and fuels our community, but also strengthens us and provides us with exactly what we need to be bold for the gospel. So tonight, the title is God's Spirit Brings Boldness. God's Spirit brings boldness. We're looking at how the Holy Spirit influences us to have boldness for the gospel. And so we're gonna be in Acts chapter four, but I need to flip the page back to Acts chapter three to give you a little bit of context. So let me read this for us. It won't be on the screen, but just listen closely, and then we'll get to where we're gonna be at tonight, okay? Acts chapter three, verse one says this. Now, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate, to ask alms of those who were entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, look at us. And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have, I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood up, began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate at the temple, asking for alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what happened to him. So Peter and John, they're going up to the temple as a regular practice. They're going up there to pray, and they come across this lame man who's begging for money. And so Peter breaks the bad news to him that he doesn't have any money to give him. And he says, I actually have something far greater to give you. And he reaches down and he picks him up, and he says, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he's immediately healed. So Peter and John, they have this encounter with this lame man, and the lame man is healed, and he's praising God, and all these people are praising the Lord for what had happened. And then Peter goes and he begins teaching the people about the gospel. He begins teaching them about what Jesus has done. And that this lame man, he'd been lame from birth, that he now is walking because of the power of God. And the religious leaders don't super love that. And so that is gonna bring us to where we are tonight in Acts chapter four. So the first thing I wanna point out to you from Acts chapter four tonight is that the Lord works despite opposition. The Lord works despite opposition. Acts chapter four, verse one says this. And as they were speaking to the people, Peter and John, as they're teaching to the people, the priest and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed and the number of the men came to about 5,000. And so after this incredible miracle, Peter and John are there, they're teaching the people, telling them about Jesus and the religious leaders and the temple staff walk out and they are not happy with the fact that this whole thing is going on. They don't love the fact that they're teaching about Jesus. They don't love that all the people are super excited and all these things. And it made me think about when I was back in school. I'm sure you guys have been in this situation before where you're in the lunchroom, you're sitting, you're eating, you're talking, you're hanging out with your friends and all of a sudden a teacher like walks over and they're kind of just like eyeing everybody. And you can just see it in their eyes. Somebody did something wrong. You just tell that somebody's in trouble, right? You can tell that somebody said something, somebody did something, somebody threw a banana peel on the floor and somebody slipped on it. And somebody is about to take a walk down to the principal's office. Y'all know what I'm talking about? That is the kind of situation that I imagined this is. That the priests and the Sadducees and the captain of the temple, they all show up where Peter and John are talking with the people and they're not happy about it. Peter and John are in trouble. And so it says in verse two, that they were greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. They didn't like that Peter and John were teaching that Jesus had risen from the dead. They didn't believe that that was possible. That was not the kind of miracle that they believed in. And so they didn't want Peter and John just going around and talking about all that. It made them nervous. It was against what they believed. But here's the cool part. Even though they came out here and even though Peter and John get arrested and thrown into jail all the way until the next day, it says that 5,000 people got saved. It says, but many of those who had heard the word believed. So even though Peter and John got thrown in jail, the word did not return void. Before I came to Bellevue, I had the opportunity of serving at a bunch of different churches in some different youth groups. And at one of them on one particular Wednesday night, we had a terrible time. It was a terrible Wednesday night. I'm just gonna be honest with you. Every single plan that we had completely fell apart. We ordered pizza and it got there an hour and a half late. It was cold and it was only cheese. We had ordered pepperoni and sausage. It was only cheese pizza. So for food, we had cold pizza. We realized as soon as we were serving pizza that me and my buddy who were doing the youth ministry down there, we realized we didn't get any drinks. So we had cold pizza with nothing to wash it down with. We started our worship time and our sound system didn't work at all. No sound at all, nothing. Yeah, it was crazy. And to top it off, in the middle of the service, our lights went out. It wasn't the power, like the power didn't go out, but our lights were just gone and we couldn't do anything about it. So we used a flashlight for the rest of the service. It was crazy. Everything just down the toilet. It was wild. But here's the crazy part about it. That night, there was a student who me and my buddy had been praying for for months. We'd been praying for months that the Lord would grab a hold of his heart and that the Lord would show him that he was a sinner and that he needed salvation, that he needed to believe in Jesus. And that night, that student gave his life to Christ. On a crazy night like that, where it seemed like everything, everything that could have gone wrong did, that student gave his life to Christ. The Lord still worked in the midst of an absolutely crazy night. And that is exactly the kind of thing that's happening here. God is not thrown off by the obstacles, by things that come up, by plans that change. God continues to work. Proverbs 19, 21, I was reading it this morning. It says, many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. So we can have our plans. We can plan it out exactly how we want things to go, but it's the Lord's way.
It's the Lord's plan, it's the Lord's purpose that is going to be fulfilled. And I'm pretty sure that Peter and John didn't have it in the plan to get arrested that day. You know? Like I don't usually go about my day just being like, yeah, can't wait to get arrested for preaching the gospel today. That's not part of the plan. But God used it, even though it was a difficult situation, even though the religious leaders who were the authority on God in that area. They were the people you would go to to ask questions about who God is. They were there oppressing the gospel. They were trying to silence Peter and John from sharing the gospel. And even in the midst of that, God did a mighty work and saved an incredible amount of people. So God's word never returns void. It always accomplishes the purpose that God intends, even if it seems like everything is against it. And I want to ask you, is there something that God wants you to do that you feel like is impossible because of the circumstances? Because it feels like there's too much opposition. God is not afraid of the obstacles in the way. He's not worried about the things that could go wrong. He's not worried about the what ifs. What my mom always says is God is not wringing his hands. You know, you get nervous, you get anxious, and you start wringing your hands. You're like, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know. I don't know how this is going to happen. God does not do that. He does not wring his hands. He knows exactly what needs to happen. And he can use you to do great things like Peter and John, even in the midst of hard situations. All we have to do is be willing and faithful to be used by him. He has the power, he has the strength, and he will fulfill his purpose even in the worst situations. The next thing that I want you to see in Acts 4 is the Lord provides right on time. The Lord provides right on time. Verse five says, on the next day, so Peter and John, they've been in jail all night long. On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who were of the high priestly family. There's a lot of people. There's a lot of people getting together for this thing. And when they had set them, Peter and John, when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, by what power or by what name did you do this? And so the whole day goes by. They gather all of these people together for this judgment of what Peter and John did, of the healing of this lame man to determine whether it was right or wrong. And they asked them, who gave you the authority? Who gave you the power? How were you able to do this? And this is incredible. Look at this next part. Verse eight says, then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit before he even begins speaking. And what he says to the religious leaders next is so bold and so crazy. It could not have been his own words. They are God's words. Jesus says to his disciples, back in Matthew 10, verses 19 through 20, he's talking about going up in front of rulers and authorities. And he says, when they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you will speak or what you are to say. For what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speaks, but the spirit of your father speaking through you. The words that Peter is about to say are not his own. They are from God and they are given to him in the exact moment that he needs them. And this is what Peter says. This is crazy. Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we're being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him, this man is standing before you well, that Jesus was the one that healed him. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. It's time to go, I guess. There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. This is incredible boldness. He's saying some spicy things. He is calling them out. He's like, he's saying, you guys are the ones that crucified him. And he's the son of God. He's the only person by which we can have salvation. These are very powerful and very important people in Israel and in Jerusalem. They had the power to beat Peter and John and throw them back in jail and to leave them there. They had the power to put them to death, but Peter trusted in the Lord and he faithfully spoke the words that God gave him in the moment that he needed them. He did not waver. He didn't dance around the topic. He told them exactly what the truth was. He told them exactly who Jesus was. And he told them exactly by what power that lame man had been healed. And it was Jesus. It was Jesus who did it. The Holy Spirit in him gave him the words to speak boldly and to have exactly the words to say in the moment. How many of you guys know Adam Scott? You guys know Adam? Y'all love Adam? Come on. Adam is one of my best friends. I think we got his picture up here. There he is. Yeah, I love Adam. He's one of my best friends. I love him like a brother. And we've had the opportunity to serve together here at Bellevue for a while. And we've had plenty of opportunities to on the fly, problem solve and figure some stuff out. And this one particular time, we were helping to put on an event here at Bellevue and we needed some stuff for some snow cones. We needed some little plastic bottles with little like nozzles so that we could use it to put the snow cone syrup in the ice. Super simple thing, right? Excuse me. And so we went to Walmart to go and find these little bottles. And it was supposed to be just routine in and out real quick operation. It was not, not at all. It was unfortunately took a long time. So we go in and we start looking for these bottles. We can't find them anywhere. We go and look for a staff member to try and tell us where they're at. There's like no staff members anywhere that aren't like at a register checking somebody out. So we can't find anybody to ask. We can't find it anywhere. We pull out our phone to see if we can look up the Walmart website and tell us what aisle they're on. We can't even get cell service in Walmart. So it's just, we're like, I don't know what we're gonna do. I don't know how we're gonna find it. And we're supposed to be back at the church in like 10 minutes. We still haven't found them. And Adam being the saint that he is, he turns to me, he goes, Sam, I think we should pray. We should pray and ask the Lord to help us find these bottles. And I was like, Adam, this seems kind of like a, not a, it feels like we shouldn't be bothering the Lord with that, right? And he was like, no, I think we should pray. And so we took a second and we prayed and we simply asked the Lord to help us find these little bottles. And as silly as it felt, I kid you not, we walked two aisles down and I guess it was the only aisle in the entire store we hadn't checked yet, there was an entire shelf of the exact bottles we were looking for. Isn't that crazy? And so God provides exactly what we need. That's a silly example, but he provides exactly what we need, exactly when we need it. We just have to trust that he will. And sometimes it is as silly as something like, snow cone bottles. And other times it's something as serious as the words to say when you have an opportunity to talk to somebody about Jesus, where you have the opportunity to defend your faith. When you have the opportunity to share with someone, we can be bold because God gives us the words to say in the moment. And so are you bold when you have that kind of an opportunity to share with Jesus? Are you holding your tongue out of a fear of what someone might say? Are you holding your tongue out of a fear of not knowing what to say? Do you trust that God will provide for you right on time? God will give us exactly what we need, when we need it, but not a moment sooner. He gives us what we need and when we need it, but he doesn't give it to us a moment sooner because we like to have control, but control does not lead to trust. Trust is what God wants us to have. He wants us to trust him. He wants us to go to him to ask for help and he will give us that help when we need it. But if we're trying to hold on and we're trying to control things, that's not trusting in him. We know that God is good. We know that he cares for us deeply. If he provides for even the sparrows in the field, how much more do you think he's gonna provide for you when you have the opportunity to tell somebody about him? That he will give you the words to say. That's the kind of faith that God wants us to have, the kind of faith that trusts him, that trusts.
trust him like Peter, who goes up against the religious leaders and speaks boldly. And they're baffled by the boldness and the faith that he has. The world sees that in him. And the world can see that in us. And so that brings me to the next thing that I want you to see in the text tonight. It's that the world should see Jesus in us. The world should see Jesus in us. Verse 13, this is the reaction of the religious leaders to what Peter had to say in his boldness. Verse 13 says, 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. The religious leaders, the elders, the rulers, they were floored by the boldness and by the power that Peter spoke with because they knew that he was just an uneducated and common man. Does anybody know what Peter did for a job before he followed Jesus? He was a fisherman. He's a fisherman. This is a fisherman, an uneducated, common fisherman going up against the religious authorities in the area. These people knew what they were talking about. They were the top dogs, the authority. That is like asking a mechanic to go and to argue with a billionaire about how to make money. It's crazy. He's an uneducated, common fisherman. And the religious leaders were blown away by the boldness that he had. They saw that Peter and John were not eloquent speakers. They were not politicians. They were not religious elites. They were just normal, uneducated, working men. They could see that Jesus was in them. That's the beautiful thing. They recognized that they had been with Jesus. They were normal people, normal people, but they had been with Jesus. And one of my favorite things to do, just ever, is going camping. When you go camping, one of the best things is just to sit by a campfire, right? Anybody love sitting by a campfire? Yeah? What happens if you go and sit by a campfire and you leave? What happens to your clothes? They smell smoky, right? I'm gonna be honest. Whenever I go and sit by a campfire, my hair smells like smoke for like three days. I promise I wash it, I shampoo it. Still smells like smoke. If you go and you sit by the campfire, you're gonna smell like smoke. And the reality is Peter and John had spent time around Jesus so they looked like him, they talked like him, they acted like him. Their clothes smelled like smoke. And my question for you is when you, when people look at you and they hear you talk and they watch the way you act, do they say you look like Jesus? You act like Jesus. Do your clothes smell like smoke? If we're seeking to be more like Christ and we're trying to spend time with him every day, people will notice that because we're gonna act different. We're gonna smell like smoke because we were by the fire. Our goal is not to be more like Christ so that people look at us and say, oh, look how holy and righteous they are. That's not the goal. That was the goal of the religious leaders, to get people to look at them and look at how holy they were, look at how good they were. Our goal is to grow to be more like Jesus. And our goal is to just like Peter and John, that people would look at us and they would be like, wow, they are just normal people. Normal people who clearly have been with Jesus. Can people look at you and tell that you've been with Jesus? The religious leaders were blown away by the just uneducation and the common nature of Peter and John. And like you and me, we're just normal people. And our goal is to look more and more like Jesus to the point that people recognize that and that they see that. So the last thing I want you to see in this text tonight is just blatantly that the Holy Spirit makes us bold. The Holy Spirit makes us bold. Verse 14 says, but seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. The religious leaders had nothing left to say in opposition. But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another. They talked with one another saying, what should we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Everybody could see it and we cannot deny it. But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name. So they called them and charged them to, they charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. So after hearing Peter's words, hearing how bold he was for Jesus, how bold he was, how he was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke with power. And they saw the lame man standing right there next to Peter. They could not deny that he had been with Jesus. They could not deny that the man had been healed. There was nothing more that they could say to oppose them. Their arguments had nothing left to stand on. So in one last attempt to kind of fix the situation and to keep the gospel from spreading, they called Peter and John back in and they said, all right, they gave him a little slap on the wrist and said, don't tell anyone else about Jesus. Stop talking about Jesus. Stop trying to heal people in his name. Stop talking about Jesus. Don't do any more of that. And I want you to listen to Peter and John's bold response. Verse 19 says, but Peter and John answered them, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge. For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. We cannot but speak of what we've seen and heard. Even though they'd been threatened, even though these powerful people were very angry with them about what they had done, they said, we can't help but talk about Jesus. Even if we tried to, we couldn't stop talking about Jesus. We've seen what he's done. We've heard of the things that he taught us. We walked with him, we talked with him. There is nothing that we can do to stop talking about Jesus. We just can't do it. So you guys be the judge, whether that's right or wrong. You guys be the judge. We might be in the wrong, we might be in the wrong, but there is nothing that we can do. We have to keep talking about Jesus. Paul talks about the same kind of idea. You know, Peter and John, they could not help but share the testimony of God's grace in their life. And Paul says in Acts 20, 24, but I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself. If only I may finish my course and the ministry that I have received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. He's saying nothing else matters. If nothing else happens in my life, if only I can just testify to the grace of God, to testify to what he has done in my life, to testify to the things that I've seen and heard, then I'm happy. I just want to glorify God. I want to give him praise and I want to tell other people about it. That's all I want to do. I want to finish that task. And Peter and John say the same thing. We cannot help but talk about what we have seen and heard. They can't hold it in. No obstacle is too great for the Lord to overcome in and through them. And there's nothing that they feared in sharing the gospel. There's nothing for you to fear in sharing the gospel. And I want to level with you guys. I want to be really honest and vulnerable with you. I am terrified, terrified of public speaking. It is so hard for me to get up here and to teach y'all about God's word. I hate being up on a stage. I hate holding a microphone. It's so scary for me. But I know without a shadow of a doubt that is what God has called me to do on this Wednesday night. There's nothing better for me to be doing than being right here, opening up God's word with you guys. And so even though it scares me, even though it's terrifying to me, even though it costs me a whole lot, it is worth it because I get to testify to the grace of God to you guys. And you guys get to join with me in worshiping him for what he's done and for the grace that he has for us, that Jesus died for us and he rose again in victory. And all we have to do is believe in him. Praise God for that kind of grace. And so I've seen God do incredible things in my life. I've seen him do incredible things in the lives of others. And I cannot help but talk about it. We should be at a spot where our hearts desire to just tell people about what Jesus has done in our life. We should be excited about it. We should have this kind of attitude that even if somebody told us not to, that we can't help it, that we just want to go and tell people about the things that we've seen and heard. So my question for you is, are you willing to trust God with your fears and your doubts when it comes to going and sharing the gospel with the people around you? Are you willing to trust that he'll give you the words
It's to say, are you willing to trust that He will give you the boldness, that by His Holy Spirit, He will give you boldness to share? And that He will, not that He'll take your fear away, but He'll give you the courage to go and to do it even though you're scared. On our own, we are fearful and we are weak and we don't always know what to say. But by the power of God, we can have strength and we can be bold and we can be strong and bold for His name. We can share the gospel with boldness. And so, are you gonna be bold for your faith in Jesus? Are you gonna be all in serving Him and loving Him? Are you gonna go out of your way to love the people around you with boldness? He will work in and through you despite the opposition. He will give you exactly the words you need to say exactly when you need to say them. He will make you bold. He will give you strength and He will carry you through and He will give you those kinds of opportunities if you are just willing to trust Him and to have faith. He'll make you bold and the people around you will be able to see that. Like I said, do you have the smoke on your clothes? Are you spending time with Jesus that gives you that kind of connection with Jesus? If you're gonna be bold for the gospel, you gotta be close to Jesus. Peter and John, they were real close to Jesus. They loved Him. They walked with Him. They obeyed Him. They followed His teaching. So are you close to Him, so close that you can smell the smoke on your clothes? You have everything you need to be a light for Christ right where your feet are. On your sports teams, on the stage for a play, marching band, all the things. You have exactly what you need to be a light exactly where God has placed you. He will give you what you need. So trust Him. Trust that He will do that. Trust that He will carry you. And maybe, maybe you're somebody that would say, you know what, I don't know what it's like to have my clothes smell like smoke. No, I haven't given my life to Christ. I haven't started a relationship with Him. And if that's you tonight, I wanna tell you that Jesus loves you. And I probably sound like a broken record with this, but I have to testify to the goodness of God and His grace and what He's done for us. Jesus loved you enough to die on the cross for you. He shed His blood so that you could be forgiven. He wants to wash you clean. And all He asks of you is that you would come to Him. You would confess that you're a sinner. You would believe in Him as your Lord and your Savior. Believe that He died for you. Believe that He rose again. And He wants to grow you and change you and to give you boldness. He wants to use you for the work in His kingdom. And so if that's not you tonight, I wanna give you the opportunity to come and to talk with somebody tonight about what it means to follow Jesus. So as we go into this song of worship, I want you to take a second and I want you to think about the things that we've talked about. Think about whether or not you have boldness, whether or not you've trusted in the Lord to give you that kind of a boldness and a drive to love other people. And so as I pray, you think about those things. And if you have not had an opportunity to talk to somebody about Jesus, you come find me, you come find Morgan, come find one of our leaders in the back. And we would love to talk to you about following Jesus tonight. And so as we close tonight, remember that God will give you the strength. He will give you the words. He will give you the power that you need to accomplish great things in his name. So let me pray for us. Lord, thank you so much for your word. Lord, thank you for the opportunity that we have to open it together. God, thank you for just the fact that you give us strength and that you give us boldness and you give us the words to say. Lord, that you call us to do great and mighty things in your name. But Lord, you don't let us do it alone. That you're right there with us, helping us, giving us the strength, giving us the ability. And so Lord, I pray we would be bold. Lord, that we would share, that we would go and we would testify to your goodness and your grace. Testify to the fact that you loved us enough to lay your life down for us. What a love. And so Lord, I pray that if there's anyone here tonight who hasn't come to know you yet, that they haven't had the hope that is found in you, the peace and the joy and the boldness that comes from knowing you. God, I pray that they would come and they would talk with somebody tonight. And Lord, that you would change their heart. Lord, you would save them. Lord, so I pray you'd be with us now as we worship. It's in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Y'all stand, let's worship.