Boldness in the Face of Opposition

Good morning.

I'm really struck by the M&M nature of today, Mums on Mission.

What a great, great thing.

And this passage we just heard is a story of extraordinary mission, isn't it?

Boldness in the face of opposition.

Last week in Acts 1, we saw the early church empowered for impact by the Holy Spirit.

And today we're going to see how the early church was emboldened for impact, for everlasting impact.

I wonder how many of us would say that we feel emboldened, or we would feel emboldened if and when faced by opposition for being a Christian.

I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, because I think it might be even less than last week.

But let's start with a reminder of a great theological truth.

The foundation, as we step into this passage and the context of this passage.

If you believe the Easter story that we just celebrated a few weeks ago, and if you trust in Jesus as your Lord and King, then you do have the Holy Spirit.

Even if you're not regularly experiencing His power.

And it's the Holy Spirit's power that will embolden us.

It is His power in us.

So as we dive into this passage, I'd love to pray for us some of the Apostle Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1, to remind us of this awesome truth.

So would you join me in prayer?

Father God, as we come to your word now, I pray that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened, in order that we may know the hope to which you've called us.

I ask now that you may remind us afresh of your incomparably great power for us who believe, and to understand that that power of the Holy Spirit living in and with us is the same power as a mighty strength that you exerted when you raised Jesus from the dead, and you seated him at your right hand in the heavenly realms.

Lord, may your Spirit empower and embolden us for everlasting impact today.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

I'm not a leadership expert, just to clarify, thank you for the kind introduction, Jono.

I'm a leadership facilitator, which means my role is to make it easy for us to understand.

And I'm also a visual learner, so I tried to make it easy for me to understand.

And I couldn't stop myself from creating a cycle to explore this passage in Acts 4, and perhaps this might serve as a helpful model for us to step into and come back to when we need to in the face of opposition.

Return to your own people, remember God reigns, request boldness, and experience God's release of everlasting impact.

And I think the cycle keeps going through the Book of Acts, and actually down through the ages of Christian witness, doesn't it?

And the astute among you will notice some solid alliteration going on there.

I'm going to take a step further with a cringey way to make it more memorable.

I just recognize we've been sitting for a long time, so if you would like to, I just encourage you to stand up for a second and run with me for a tick.

Trust the process, okay?

Trust the process.

Here's a riddle.

What do Christians and pirates have in common?

Well, the answer is absolutely nothing, except for the bright among us, R, R, R.

Come on, help me out.

Four times, R, R, R, R.

Good on you.

You won't forget it.

Take a seat.

Here we go.

Okay.

I promise that's the last cringey thing I'll ever do again at church.

No, I can't promise that.

Before we follow these four Rs through, let's set the scene of what happened since we saw last week that believers were empowered for impact by the Holy Spirit.

Now, let's run through just a bit before this passage, but notice as we do this quickly, the repeated focus on everything happening.

In whose name?

The name of Jesus Christ.

Firstly, the apostles, Peter and John, had healed a lame man, the crippled beggar, in Acts 3.6.

If you have your Bibles, please have it open and follow along with me.

And they said, In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.

And they boldly preached to the unlookers.

For this, they found themselves in jail and before the Sanhedrin, who are the elders and the teachers of the law.

But instead of trying to run away from opposition, what did Peter and John do?

They went head first into it in Acts 4.10.

What did they say?

It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.

And then, they boldly declared in Acts 4, verse 12, that salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

The Sanhedrin commanded them and threatened them not to speak in the name of Jesus.

But they said in Acts 4, verse 20, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.

These were eyewitnesses to Jesus.

The Sanhedrin kept threatening them, but let them go because, this is a cool passage, verse 21, after further threats, they let them go.

They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened.

So, here we find our first R in the cycle of crazy, being, craziness of being emboldened by the spirit in the face of opposition.

Firstly, return to your people.

They returned to their own people, in verse 23.

On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported back all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

This phrase, their own people, is intimate.

It's referring to returning to one's own family.

It's used also in John, chapter 1, verse 11, when Jesus came to his own people.

And it's what many of us will do today, isn't it?

We will return to our own.

Have a family meal on Mother's Day.

And here, it's expanded to the family of the people of God.

So, this morning, you've returned to your own people.

And they reported back.

And it's fabulous.

I love it, in May, Mission Month, to hear reports from sent workers like TNL.

Isn't that incredible?

But this is more local in this passage.

Notice, it's about reporting back to a community of believers serving in the same city, in Jerusalem.

So, Acts, as we saw last week, builds out layers of scope for God's mission, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

But here, we're looking at this first layer.

So, the closest example to this would be Wednesday night, or Thursday night, reporting back to your life hub.

Rhythms, we see like this.

Regular reporting back, sharing, caring, but praying.

Our mission at NorthernLife is super simple, super clear.

Love God, love others, make disciples.

And although we have nothing but God's love and good news to share with the waiting world, we will and do face opposition.

It may not look like it looks in the Book of Acts, but we will guarantee face opposition if we seek to share this love.

Notice what the church did.

As soon as they heard a report of opposition, it's so challenging to look at what they did.

They didn't just spend time giving advice, or hey, maybe you could try this or that.

They didn't try and fix it out loud with one mind.

Look with me in verse 24.

When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.

And that leads us to the next R.

What did they do as they prayed?

They remembered God reigns.

They addressed God as king who reigns.

Verse 24, sovereign Lord.

They remember God as creator.

You made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them.

And they remember God speaks.

In verse 25, you spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father, David.

It's interesting, isn't it?

They remember David as their forefather, not as Israel's king, who he also was.

And instead, they remember from Psalm 2 that actually it's God who is king over all things, over the whole world.

They remember Psalm 2, why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one.

It's an age-old pattern.

God spoke this truth to King David, and a thousand years later, as we see in verse 27, it's exactly what Jesus experienced in his death and resurrection.

Exactly what we just remembered over Easter.

Let's look at Easter through a different lens.

Jesus' trial was a bizarre alliance of international conspiracy, mutually plotting evil in vain.

It says exactly that.

Read on with me.

Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles, the international conspiracy plotting and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed.

But the church remind themselves that none of this has taken God by surprise.

In verse 28, they did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

This is great theology, isn't it?

It's incredible.

It challenges us to believe that any opposition we face for believers right now, even ANK's visa situation that a lot of us have been praying for, might be a curve ball for them, might be a curve ball for us.

It might not be in their five-year plan, but it's not taking God by surprise at all, and it's not outside of his rule.

While from our worldly perspective, everything might be going bad, we can continue to trust that actually everything still is and will continue to go exactly according to God's heavenly plan.

Mums, this is good news.

Dads, it's also good news.

If you're feeling anxious about the world you've brought your child into, it might be helpful to remember this.

The nations will continue to rage, the people will continue to plot in vain, and God will continue to reign.

Amen.

We served in the Middle East for almost 15 years and experienced firsthand, sorry, I remember it strongly, what the macroplotting can mean on the micro scale.

In December 2009, we found out that the Egyptian Minister of Interior called for a confidential meeting in Cairo for the ministers of the interior of all Arab countries, except one, the Lebanese, who was a Christian Orthodox.

The meeting had one item on the agenda, how to resist the growth of Christianity in the Arab world.

Of course, this would usually take place in secret.

However, interestingly, applying this passage, this particular meeting, a verbal fight broke out between the Egyptian and the Algerian ministers of interior which reached the press.

And that's how this meeting was exposed while we were living there.

Over the coming years, thousands, thousands of Christian workers quietly did not have their visas renewed.

Reasons were never given, but the strategy was clear and very well implemented over the next ten years.

The strategy was, resist the growth of the gospel by kicking out the Christian workers.

The politicians gathered, they plotted in vain, but the Lord reigns.

In Psalm 2, it continues on, not in this passage, in Psalm 2, if you go back, it says, He laughs, and He thwarts their plans.

In our context, in the Middle East, the rulers thought kicking out Christian workers would squash the growth of the church.

The exact opposite has happened.

The previously timid local church, when we left, prayed and said, We've got this.

They were emboldened.

When we first moved to our city, we knew of two local believers and dozens of foreign workers, including kids.

Now there are hundreds, as we understand it, we don't know exactly, hundreds of local believers and not a single foreign worker.

God reigns.

Remembering God reigns doesn't mean we'll always be kept safe or always released from situations of persecution or opposition.

In fact, that's why we live in Australia now.

You need to read just a few more chapters of Acts or chat just to a few believers around the world to realize and be sure of this.

Opposition and persecution and even death will come.

And there's certainly a place for requesting God for safety and deliverance from trials and for taking action to ensure safety.

But what the early church focuses on praying next, I find an enormous challenge, and I hope you do too.

Let's look at it on our next R.

As they continue praying, they remember God reigns, and as they continue praying, they requested boldness in the face of opposition.

Put yourself in their shoes.

They've been threatened.

They've been told to shut up and never speak again.

They go back to their own people.

What do they pray for?

More boldness.

Let's get out there.

Now, Lord, consider their threats, and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.

Stretch out your hand to heal, and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant, Jesus.

They're requested not safety, but boldness to speak his words.

The Greek phrasing here is totally awesome.

It's literally, give boldness to speak your word while your hand, you stretch out for healing.

It's more helpful, isn't it, than our English translation?

They're asking for two things to happen simultaneously.

Human boldness and God's healing.

Two sides of the same coin.

Note, and it's through that very name that the Sanhedrin had ordered them to completely not speak the name of Jesus.

In Acts, miracles are seen as a confirmation of the word of God, which the apostles boldly proclaimed.

Miracles are simply for the purpose of increasing the fame of the name of the Lord Jesus.

In the Green Booklet, if anyone's got that, or if you refer to that during the week, there's a fabulous question to explore.

Share a time when you or someone you know face challenges for their faith.

How did you see God at work in that situation?

I really encourage you to reflect on that and discuss that this week.

You never forget the stories of friends who face extraordinary challenges for their faith.

You will never forget.

Ruth was a young professional woman.

I met through work while working in the Middle East.

She got to know Fiona, and she shared that she was so afraid of evil spirits, which is quite common for people of her background, that her sister needed to accompany her to the bathroom.

Just imagine living in that fear.

Yet, after she trusted in Jesus, the fear completely disappeared.

We invited Ruth and her Muslim brother over for Christmas lunch.

And since Ruth hadn't told her brother, she was afraid she hadn't told her brother that she trusted in Jesus, Fiona and I and the kids were expecting that it would be on our shoulders, with relatively low risk, to share with Ruth's brother the Christmas story, just naturally, over a meal.

We were shocked and surprised and delighted and afraid to see this young woman, previously too scared to go to the bathroom by herself, share with her brother, clearly empowered and emboldened by the Holy Spirit on Christmas Day, what the good news of Christmas really is.

After that, Ruth, after they had left, Ruth quite matter effectively shared with us afterwards that the result of her sharing with her family now that she trusted in Jesus could be her death.

Timur believers pray for boldness and receive it.

I just want to do a quick scenario with you.

For a second, just for a second, put yourself in the shoes of being a secret believer, like a lot of believers around the world, too afraid to tell even your own family that you follow Jesus.

In 2011, does anyone remember the Arab Spring, the big political movement that moved across the Middle East?

There are a bunch of revolutions here, there, and everywhere, really.

Dictators were being overthrown, but through the power of the people.

The people were speaking for the first time in a long time.

And in that context, there was an enormous power vacuum.

In fact, there still is, 15 years later, across the Middle East.

In 2011, 2012, extremists, including al-Qaeda, were running amok in our city and all around the place.

People were being murdered just walking out their front door, traveling on the bus on the way to work, on the street in broad daylight, just for looking different, and because people had a hunch that they were different, for whatever reason.

Imagine the fear for local believers who didn't look different, but they were different.

They had completely trusted in Jesus, a different prophet to the one that everyone around them followed.

They chose the way of Jesus.

Timur believers prayed for boldness and received it.

We were so afraid for our local Christian friends when someone, in that context, imagine this happens to you.

Someone posts all of your details, your name, your wife's name, your kid's name, where you live, and declared that you are a follower of Jesus on Facebook.

Which everyone is on.

We were so afraid when we had to tell our friend, a young man, with a young family, that he was named and shamed.

We'll never forget what he said.

This is good.

Now we know of all these other brothers and sisters across the country who we have their contact details.

We didn't even know they existed before.

So we can call them to encourage them in this coming time of persecution.

I hope you're inspired by these snippets of the Spirit's power.

But here's the danger, friends.

Wheeling out someone on May Mission Month that has these stories, that has heard these things, or celebrating the incredible work happening around the world, that we can develop a real sense that it's happening over there.

Can we dare to expect and to pray that it can also happen right here because you have that same Holy Spirit in you?

Amen, Mike?

Thank you.

I wonder what's stopping you from being so bold.

Like Jono asked us last week, perhaps it's because we haven't requested it.

Perhaps you're just waiting to feel strong, to feel competent, to feel qualified, to have all the right words.

Let me promise you, you never will.

God wants you to embrace His weakness, as Jono shared last week.

It is His power, and it is His opportunity in that moment of weakness for Him to show His power.

So let's see power unleash when the church prayed together, remembering that God reigns and requested for boldness.

Our final R, God released everlasting impact.

Verse 31, after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God boldly.

They immediately received what they asked for and so much more.

Notice this, their prayer was answered with a miraculous sign and wonder, an earthquake, an earthquake signifying the very presence of God.

Think Mount Sinai, God showed up.

And their prayer was answered even more than expected.

They prayed for who?

Peter and John.

What did they pray?

For boldness.

What did they get?

Boldness for themselves.

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God boldly.

Everyone was empowered to speak the Word of God boldly.

So we just prayed for boldness for our sent workers overseas.

What can you expect?

Boldness for yourself.

Let's not stop there.

The everlasting impact continues to grow from verse 32.

Don't fall for the little subject heading in your Bible.

Read on, it's the same story.

They were unified, and they had sacrificial generosity.

They were one in heart and mind.

They shared everything they had.

What a challenge.

Their heart's desire was to do whatever was needed to ensure there was not a needy person among them.

On Mother's Day, we celebrate a mother's sacrificial love for her children.

Thank you, mums.

A mother's love to do what is ever needed for her kids.

But here, this is beyond sacrificial love for your own kids, isn't it?

This is sacrificial love sharing everything with everyone and whoever needs it in your community.

They shared not only in deed, they are empowered to have powerful witness in words.

Verse 33, to testify to the resurrection power of Jesus.

Jesus, the risen Lord, had promised power with the outpouring of his Spirit.

We saw that last week, Acts 1, 8, and he kept his promise.

They were empowered, they were emboldened for proclamation.

And not just proclamation in words, proclamation in deeds, radical generosity and unity in the face of opposition.

And so much grace, God's great grace was upon them all.

Oh, what a race through it.

What does this mean for us?

These four R's will help us ask natural questions and challenges.

Return.

Are we committed to rhythms of return to our own people?

Yes, to our mothers, also to our people here.

Commitment to go not only to Lifehub, not to show up, but to actually be present in mind, body, and spirit.

And to report back what real challenges we're actually facing in the missional context that Jesus has sent us.

Our work, our families, our sports teams, our social circles.

That's your reporting back cycle.

And not just to report back, and not just to share and care and chat, it's actually to share with both care and prayer.

In response, let's return.

Remember, when we do meet together, are we praying together out loud with one mind, remembering that no matter what we're facing, God has everything in His hands, everything under control, even when it completely feels and seems like it's not.

We can trust Him.

Request, are we actively requesting boldness, or are we just so tired?

We were asked this 20 years ago, and we're just being lulled into apathy and inaction.

Let me be clear, friends.

Boldness does not mean recklessness, insensitivity, or kicking a door down when it's just slightly ajar.

That's not boldness.

But it certainly doesn't mean silence or conforming.

We all have different contexts, and boldness is going to look differently for us, and the type of opposition will look different in different contexts for different believers in different places.

Ruth's context in the Middle East is different to yours, and your context at work is different to someone else's context at work or in their family or with their friends.

But here's the question we need to ask.

If boldness, unnatural boldness, is not a word that others in our context would use to describe us, why not?

Unnatural, let me rephrase it, respectful boldness.

That's not a word that people would use, why not?

Perhaps it might simply because we're not continually praying to be emboldened.

And if we are emboldened, I think it's very fair to expect today, not necessarily in the future, in our cultural moment in Australia, not to expect opposition that leads to prison and death, in May.

But there is opposition in Australia, don't think, oh yeah, that happens to them over there.

There's enormous opposition, is there not?

Look at the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald and determine if this is a culture that opposes the gospel or not.

But what makes it so hard is it's so subtle.

And that we're becoming like the proverbial frog in the boiling water, not even noticing that we're being boiled to conform and to be silent, because that's what's expected of our mob.

At risk of offending, our greatest form of opposition may be in the form of prevailing worldviews of culture and ideas.

As we discovered in GO24 last year, following Jesus is as much about what we say no to as what we say yes to.

So we could apply this in multiple different ways, just to name a few ways that these opposing ideas might be conforming us and lulling us into silence.

Just a few ideas.

Our culture says that sex and cohabitating before marriage is good and normal.

Does it not?

Pray for boldness to say no.

Make wise decisions.

And in doing so, proclaim the good news in word and deed.

Our culture says the biggest house, the best education, the flashiest gadgets are more important than helping the needy among us.

Pray for boldness and proclaim the good news with sacrificial action and generous giving.

Our culture says, you do you.

Oh, don't we always lead to God?

Pray for boldness, say no, and proclaim the good news.

Verse 12, salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

And finally, release.

Are you experiencing the blessings now of everlasting impact?

Are you ready for God's release of miracles and wonders?

Are you open to be surprised by God for the purpose of the name and fame of the Lord Jesus going out?

Are you ready for a release of unity and generosity in this community?

As individuals and as a community, are we seeking such open-handed generosity that sets us free to share God's gracious provision for us towards brothers and sisters in need?

Here and afar, like we heard.

Are you ready for God's release of a spirit-empowered, bold witness in your life?

Are you expecting and ready to give a reason for the hope you have?

Today, at Mother's Day, and tomorrow, at work.

How about we raise our voices together now, and we ask God for boldness right now.

Let's pray.

Dear God, we thank you that you are king, and that you reign over all things.

Lord, we thank you for the boldness of those who first shared with us the good news about Jesus Christ.

And Lord, we ask, especially for those of us who are feeling nervous, under pressure, conformed to be silent, that you enable us to speak your word with great boldness.

We thank you that you are the one who empowers, and you are the one who emboldens.

And we ask this in the powerful name of our Lord Jesus.

Amen.

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