Missional Living – To Boldly Go! Part 3 (Acts 4:23-31)

²⁹ Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, ³⁰ by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.”

In the latter part of their prayer the apostles and their companions call the Lord’s attention to the threats of the priests and the elders: look on their threats. The charge of the risen Lord is fresh in their minds (Acts 1:8); they were to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Jesus had called them, trained them, consecrated them with His own sacrifice, had commissioned them, and finally had come alongside them in the Spirit (John 14:18) to ensure that they had the Power to do the work. His commissioning was not to be subverted by cowardice in response to threats or the desire to avoid conflict with corrupt authorities.

Remembering their former false ideas about their own fortitude (Matthew 26:33-35), their recent failures (John 18:17,25), their tendencies toward fretting (John 11:12-14), and the advice of Jesus for facing temptation (Luke 22:40,46), their Teacher’s example (Luke 22:39-45), they called upon God to make them bold:

For your own glory give us the disposition to boldly go where no one has gone before with a message that no one has heard before validated by works that no one has done before.

We must be especially aware of the reason for their prayer. They did not ask for a way out but for the strength to press in.

The prayers of the early church look very different from our own. We beseech God to give us better stuff where they asked to be made better; they asked for boldness for the one thing: witnessing. We want healing in order to be comforted in our affliction often apart from whether or not we are operating in our calling. They asked for healing as a help for the one thing: witnessing. We seek signs and wonders as a means of creating buzz about our ministry. They asked for the same thing but for the message, for His ministry, for the mission of making Him known: witnessing (Isaiah 43:10; 44:8; 49:6; Acts 1:8)

Questions for Consideration

1. Do I respond to threats with going to my fellowship to pray?
2. Are my prayers in moments of difficulty aimed at helping with the call to make the Lord known?
3. What would it look like to be (1) bold about faith in Jesus in the places where God has set me and (2) capable in sharing the gospel?