Acts: An Important Point, Pt. 2: Boldness

In Acts 4, Peter and John have been released from the custody of the Sanhedrin and warned not to preach the name of Jesus. Upon their release, Luke records:

On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:

“‘Why do the nations rage
    and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth rise up
    and the rulers band together
against the Lord
    and against his anointed one.”

Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken.And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

That’s a great prayer, and one we should resort to from time to time: enable your servant to speak your word with boldness. Paul did. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul solicited their prayers: “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, divine utterance may be given me, so that I will boldly make known the mystery of the gospel.” Ephesians 6:19.

His is an interesting prayer because he demonstrated boldness on many occasions. In Lystra (Acts 14), some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. Acts 14:19-20. That’s incredible. He did not run; he didn’t scatter. He went back into the city. See John 10:12 (“But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.”)

In the same chapter, we learn that Paul went to Derbe next and preached the gospel in that city, winning a large number of disciples. Then Paul returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. In other words, Paul went back to the places where they heaped abuse on him, stirred up persecution against him, expelled him, and stoned him to death (at least as far as they were concerned). Paul went back because he was no hireling, because he recognized that boldness must carry the Word forward, and because he must have recognized his boldness would engender the same determination in his flock. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” Paul communicated to them—and he did that by both word and deed.

In Acts 18, we find Paul in Corinth. He is testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. But the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive. He shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. So, a big conflict, and a direct one. And he goes next door? I find that incredible, and perhaps Crispus appreciated his conviction. He, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.

We are not told what was going through Paul’s mind then in Corinth. But God does strengthen Paul:

One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.

So perhaps he had prayed for boldness or encouragement (i.e., to be inspired with courage) as should we, if we are interested, as he is, in getting the word of God out.