“Cowardly Christian or Bold Believer?”
Acts 4
Their was once a little boy who owned a cure dog. A man came along and asked the boy; “what kind of dog is that?” The boy replied; “Why it’s a police dog.” The man said, “it doesn’t look like a police dog.” To which the boy said, “Well, he’s in the secret service.” Today we have far too many Christians in the secret service. You might refer to them as cowardly Christians. Don’t want to pray over their food in a restaurant, don’t want to witness to someone for fear of rejection.
In Acts chapter four we read the word boldness three times, a mark of discipleship is boldness. Are you a bold believer, or are you a cowardly Christian? Boldness is not arrogance, or rudeness, it’s not putting your figure in someone’s face and telling them off.
Some people in the U.S. handle Rattlesnakes to show how bold they are, that’s not boldness, that just plan old stupidity.
Illustration: An evangelist went to a back woods church in the hills of Tennessee not knowing it was a snake handling church. He was setting up on the podium with the pastor when a couple of men brought in a box full of snakes and dumped them out in front of the evangelist. The evangelist turned to the pastor and asked if he had a back door to which the pastor said no it doesn’t. Then the evangelist asked, “where would you like one?”
Boldness is a willingness to stand for the Lord Jesus Christ in the face of opposition.
HOW TO BE A BOLD CHRISTIAN – these three things will keep you from being a cowardly Christian.
KEEP COMPANY WITH GOD THE SON (V. 13) that they had been with Jesus.
You can’t walk in the presence of Jesus and be a cowardly Christian. Walk with Jesus make certain that Jesus is real to you. He will only be real to you if you walk with Him and talk with Him and share your life with Him.
I come to the Garden Alone is one of the greatest hymns in the hymn book.
Only way to go door to door is to know that the Lord Jesus is going with you. “Go and make disciples of the world, and lo I am with you always.”
Illustration: There are certain things when your in a foreign country that you can’t bring back into the United States. Adrian Rogers tells of a time when he was coming back into this country and he was going thru security. Their was a man in front of Adrian Rogers who had some gourmet cheese. The inspector said, “I’m sorry sir, you cannot bring this cheese into this country.” The man and the inspector argued for a few minutes, until finally the man said, ‘oh yes, I am going to bring it into this country you just watch.” Walked to the back of the line and ate the cheese then walked right on thru. They may say we can’t take Jesus into the public schools but as long as He is in us we’re taking Him everywhere we go.
HAVE CONFIDENCE IN GOD THE FATHER v. 24 they raised their voices to God, and said Sovereign Lord.
You have to keep things in perspective, if you don’t keep things in perspective the devil is going to keep you spooked. The man who can kneel before God can stand before anyone else. One fear of a holy God removes all other fears of this world.
They had confidence that God is the creator of all things.
A young man asked his pastor if he believed their was life somewhere out their other than on earth. The pastor said, no I don’t believe in life on other planets. The young man said, now pastor think about it, there are billions and billions and billions of stars, and you don’t believe there is life out their anywhere? He said I can’t prove theirs not but I just don’t believe there is. Then the college student said, “well then why did God go thru all that trouble to make all that stuff?” The pastor said, “What trouble?”
There it is – God spoke and universes drifted from His fingers.
When they saw God as the creator of all things it just naturally follows just like night follows day that He is the controller of all things. Now we have got to get our perspective right. Do you think Gethsemane and bloody Calvary were a mistake. Do you think things got out of hand? Do you think God is pacing back and forth in heaven saying, Oh no, what are we going to do now? NO, not a blade of grass moves without His permission.
RECEIVE COURAGE FROM GOD THE SPIRIT – enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness…filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
A servant is totally surrendered to God and His power and control. They wanted courage to express God’s word. Cowardly Christians are not expressing the word of God. Notice they didn’t pray for safety, they prayed for courage. I not only believe that we need to be praying for boldness in the pews but also boldness in the pulpits. My generation of preachers seem to be too worried about being politically correct and not Biblically correct. We need to be praying for the pulpits that our pastors in this nation will have a Holy Boldness to proclaim the truths of God word without fear.
They wanted courage to extend God’s hand. They wanted God miraculous power to be extended through their lives.
They wanted courage to exalt God’s son. People don’t want you to mention Jesus’ name anymore.
What was the result look at verse 33.
This is the year of discipleship, to know God and to make God known. But this will not happen if we’re going to be cowardly Christians. WE must be bold believers if we’re going to grow in our Christian faith.
