With All Boldness – Acts 4
“And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,” — Acts 4:29
Once again, we see Peter speaking with incredible boldness that cannot be explained in human terms. Even his enemies were amazed by the boldness of him and John (v.13).
While standing before some of the most important men in the land, Peter showed no sign of cowardice or intimidation. On the contrary, he was outspoken, forthright, and honest. His manner was one of truth and courage. The things he said possessed a logic and a scriptural basis that his enemies struggled to refute.
After being repeatedly threatened, he and John returned to the group of believers and told them what had happened. Instead of being silenced or scared, they prayed for further boldness to speak God’s Word. They went forth and continued to preach the resurrection.
We need a good dose of boldness today. So many of us who know Christ fail to have anything close to the boldness of Peter and John.
Why is that? I don’t know, but here are some questions for us to ask ourselves:
- Are we completely convinced of the resurrection of Jesus Christ? (v.2)
- Are we totally confident in the power of the Word of God? (v.4)
- Are we too easily impressed and intimidated by men? (v.6)
- Are we continually being filled with the Holy Spirit and His power? (v.8)
- Are we making our message the gospel of Jesus Christ and rooting our arguments in Scripture? (v.9-11)
- Are we spending much time with Jesus? (v.13)
- Are we making our goal to listen to the Lord and obey Him? (v.19)
- Have we personally experienced the life-changing power of Christ and the gospel? (v.20)
- Are we spending time “with [our] own company” (the church) being encouraged and praying together? (v.23,32)
- Are we submitting ourselves to the Lord and praying for boldness? (v.24-31)
As we read Acts 4, we see many things that contributed to the boldness Peter and John had. No doubt, there are areas of our Christian life we could grow in so that when faced with threats or opportunities, we will speak up with boldness as well.