Sermon Extras

SERMON NOTES

Rooted and Renegade: Acts 4:1-22 “Building Boldness in Believers” Part 1

REVIEW> PODCAST QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS! We are continuing in our journey through Acts! Quick review:

• Jesus has charged his disciples to continue the ministry that he started
• The disciples wait and receive the promised gift of the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of them. 
• The church becomes a movement with miracles. 
• Acts 3 is the first recorded miracle
• Acts 4 is the first record of opposition to the church. 

CONTEXT> This is something that Jesus told his disciples would happen: 

•   16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. 19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” Matthew 10: 16-20
• What does this opposition and persecution look like? Jesus tells us 2 ways that this will happen: Overt and Covert Persecution: 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account..” Matthew 5:10-11

APP> How does this affect us today as believers? 

• “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…” – 2 Timothy 3:12
• “20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.” John 15:20

Big Idea > The Holy Spirit provides boldness to proclaim the Gospel in the face of persecution. 

1. What is offensive about the Gospel?: 

• I want you to notice something in the text… there isn’t tension about the man being healed.. i mean.. who would be mad about that? Look at the word that Luke uses over and over again .. “Speaking v1” v2 “teaching and proclaiming” v18 they charge them “not to speak..” 

APP> The world loves the good works of Christianity but hates the good news of Christianity. Why? 

1. Because the Gospel says we are sinners.  v10 “ whom you crucified” Why did Jesus have to be crucified? To save sinners, Jesus crucifixion was a substation. 
2. Because the Gospel demands repentance. v12 “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected.. the cornerstone..” Do you know what an ancient cornerstone was? It was the main measurement that the rest of the entire building was built around. (PIC) *ILL> My brother Johns floors plans wrong, tearing up the foundation. APP> That was the gospel demands. 
3. Because the Gospel says that only Jesus can save us. v12 “And there is salvation in no one else … Jesus…” You see, Peter is saying that you can’t save yourself, you have to humble yourself. 

APP> A couple things here. All world views are exclusive.. if you say, “Well I think all good people go to heaven” what are you doing? you are excluding the bad people! Christianity teaches that our acceptance before God has nothing to do with us, it has everything to do with Jesus! 

APP> The gospel isn’t showing because Jesus is the only way to God. The gospel should be shocking because there is a way to God. 

APP> The gospel is offensive, so christians shouldn’t be.

2) What does Holy Spirit boldness look like? 

1. An Urgency to share the message. v19
2. A Clarity of the message. v9-12
3. A Sincerity for the listeners. v12 “we must be saved”
4. An intimacy with Jesus. v13

Big Idea > The Holy Spirit provides boldness to proclaim the Gospel in the face of persecution. 

Application and Closing> 

Why don’t we have this boldness? 

• Fear of man? 
• We are too comfortable? 
• Lack a biblical knowledge? 

I think those are A answer but I don’t think it’s… THE answer. 

APP> We don’t have the boldness of the early church because we don’t believe in the gospel like the early church.

“It is impossible to spend several months in close study of the remarkable short book, conventionally known as the Acts of the Apostles, without being profoundly stirred and to be honest, disturbed. The reader is stirred because he is seeing Christianity, the real thing, in action for the first time in human history. The newborn church, as vulnerable as any human child, having neither money, influence nor power in the ordinary sense, is setting forth joyfully and courageously to win the pagan world for God through Christ…Yet we cannot help feeling disturbed as well as moved, for this surely is the Church as it was meant to be. It is vigorous and flexible, for these are the days before it ever became fat and short of breath through prosperity or muscle-bound by over-organization. These men did not make “acts of faith,” they believed, they did not “say their prayers,” they really prayed. They did not hold conferences on psychosomatic medicine, they simply healed the sick…No one can read this book without being convinced that there is Someone here at work besides mere human beings. Perhaps because in their very simplicity, perhaps because of their readiness to believe, to obey, to give, to suffer, and if need be to die, the Spirit of God found what surely He must always be seeking – a fellowship of men and women so united in love and faith that He can work in them and through them with the minimum of let or hindrance. Consequently it is a matter of sober historical fact that never before has any small body of ordinary people so moved the world that their enemies could say, with tears of rage in their eyes, that these men “have turned the world upside down”! J.B. Phillips on the book of Acts.” JB Phillips- Intro to the Book of Acts in Translation

Application: 

• If I am not experiencing the same opposition as the early church, am I speaking the same message as the early church? 
• Do I really believe that the Holy Spirit will provide the boldness I need to share the Good News of Jesus? “There is only one way to find out…..” 
• Ask God for an opportunity to be bold this week. 

Big Idea > The Holy Spirit provides boldness to proclaim the Gospel in the face of persecution.