True Freedom of Speech (Acts 4: 23-31)

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Welcome:

Today, we are exploring the topic of "True Freedom of Speech," based on Acts 4:23-31.  Today, we’ll address these fears and look at how the early church found boldness through prayer and the Holy Spirit.

 This passage in Acts 4:23-31 offers us profound insights into how we can find true freedom of speech through prayer, scripture, and the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Key Points:

1. Levels of Apprehension:
   • General Hesitation: A natural tendency to avoid discussing spiritual matters for fear of people's reactions.
   • Fear of Rejection: Worrying that someone might reject you personally for sharing your faith.
   • Facing Opposition: Dealing with individuals who have shown resistance to spiritual conversations, making it even more daunting to speak up.
2. Biblical Insight:
   • Peter and John's Example: After being threatened by the Jewish leaders, they returned to their community and prayed together.
   • Scriptural Focus: Their prayer began by acknowledging God's sovereignty and quoting scripture, showing the importance of grounding our prayers in God's Word.
3. Practical Applications:
   • Community Support: Having a small group or prayer partner can provide the necessary support and encouragement.
   • Prayer and Boldness: Instead of praying for protection, they prayed for boldness to speak God's word and for God to perform signs and wonders.

Community and Prayer: Peter and John didn't go back to the entire assembly of believers but to a smaller group, likely the original apostles and a few others. This suggests the importance of having a close-knit group for support and prayer. Do you have a prayer partner or a small group of friends? If not, it’s important to find one for mutual support in prayer.

Prayer and Scripture: Their prayer began by acknowledging God as the Creator, which is significant because it reminded them that God is in control of all circumstances. By focusing on the Creator instead of their circumstances, they alleviated their fear.

Overcoming Fear with Boldness: The disciples prayed not for protection but for power and boldness to speak God’s word. This is a powerful example for us. When facing opposition, we should pray for the strength to continue trusting that God is in control and will accomplish His purposes.

Results of Their Prayer: After praying, the place where they were meeting was shaken, indicating God's presence. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. This demonstrates that their boldness and freedom to speak came as a result of prayer and the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Practical Takeaways:

1. Corporate Prayer: 
2. Depend on the Holy Spirit:

Closing Thoughts: If you feel apprehensive about speaking to someone about the Lord, follow the pattern we see in this passage. Seek out prayer support f

Transcript

True Freedom of Speech.  (Acts 4: 23-31)

Transcript: 

Have you ever felt the urge to talk to someone about the Lord, only to suddenly feel apprehensive or even nervous about it? Maybe it was more than just being nervous it was even worse than that, and you felt downright scared.

There can be various levels of apprehension when it comes to sharing our faith.

The first level is something I believe most of us experience. There's a natural tendency to avoid discussing spiritual matters for fear of how people will react or what they might say about us to other people. I think we all experience this to at least some degree. 

Then there's a deeper level where you fear outright rejection. It's not just about fearing tough questions you can't answer, but the worry that the person might reject you as an individual.

Beyond that, you might face someone who has already shown opposition to spiritual conversations. Speaking to them would naturally be even more daunting, they might have threatened a negative reaction if you bring up the topic again.

So, this morning, on TBPDP I want to ask: How do you overcome such fear?

All of us experience some level of apprehension or fear. Is it just a matter of being an introvert? Well, my experience tells me that even the most out and out extroverts can struggle with this. 

Sometimes, extraverts can be fearful of rejection because they supposed bon-ami can stem from a desire to be liked and to look good by fitting in. So, how do you overcome it? Well I believe todays passage really can help.

I believe there's a story in the Book of Acts that gives us insight into this issue. Let's turn to Acts chapter 4 and see how they dealt with it. We'll start reading from verse 23:

23 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. 24 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. 25 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?

26 The kings of the earth rise up

and the rulers band together

against the Lord

and against his anointed one.

27 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. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 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.

(Acts 2: 23-31)

Yesterday in our last discussion from the Book of Acts, we looked at the first part of this chapter, where Peter and John healed a lame man at the temple. As a result, they were arrested and threatened by the Jewish leaders, who commanded them not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus again.

The great question at this point was: How should they respond to that? The passage I just read tells us how they responded, and it says that the first thing they did was go back to their own people.

The general academic consensus on the Greek words used here is that it suggests they didn't go back to the whole large assembly of new believers but to a small group, probably the original apostles and a few others.

This suggests to me that we all need the same kind of support. Do you have a prayer partner or a small group of friends? Do you have someone you can go to when you need prayer? If not, it’s important to find someone or a small group that can support you in prayer.

This kind of small group prayer meeting is exactly what I believe is being described in the opening verse. Peter and John went back to their close companions and share what has happened and they report back to them all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.

You might wonder, what exactly did they report? Thankfully, we don’t have to guess this time because we're told earlier in verse 17 which we looked at yesterday. They said: “To keep it from spreading further among the people, let us warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.” So, they commanded Peter and John not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

So, in response to this, Peter and John returned to their small group, and say to them, “We were told not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus Christ ever again.”

What do you think they might do next? 

Here are a couple of possibilities.

They were in Jerusalem when all this happened, but most of the apostles were from Galilee. Maybe this would be a good time to go home. They might have considered saying, “You know, this is not a friendly environment for what we want to do, so why don’t we just pack up and go back to Galilee, were we would be safe?”

Another option might be to think, “This might be a  temporary problem, so why don’t we just lay low for a while? We could retreat and recharge our batteries, and maybe the intensity of the opposition will die down.”

This raises an important question: How do we respond when we face apprehension about sharing our faith? Every one of us has faced or is facing situations where we want to talk about the Lord but feel apprehensive. What do you do? Do you just do it somewhere else or wait for the situation to change? How do you handle that fear?

The next verse tells us what they did next it says.

When they heard this, they raised their voices together in pray

They prayed. The solution to fear, in part, is to call a prayer meeting. Interestingly, this wasn't a private prayer meeting with just one or two individuals; it was a small group of people praying together.

Let’s examine this prayer. Verse 24 says.

“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:

The first thing they did was praise God, acknowledging Him as the Creator, which is significant because it means the acknowledge that God is in control of all circumstances, including the religious leaders threatening them.

By focusing on the Creator instead of their circumstances, they reminded themselves of God's control over everything. This shift in focus will always help alleviate fear. So, they started their prayer by praising God, and then, interestingly, they quoted a Psalm.

Verse 25 says, “Quoting David they say: 

“‘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.”

This quotation from Psalm 2 emphasizes that prayer and scripture go hand in hand.

To understand the connection between prayer and scripture, let’s look at what Jesus said about this issue.

Jesus speaking to John in John 15:4 said.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

This underscores the importance of remaining connected to Jesus through prayer and scripture. Just as the disciples did, we should begin our prayers by acknowledging God's sovereignty and turning to His Word for guidance and strength. 

The reason I wanted to turn to this passage is to highlight that Jesus talks about abiding in Him and allowing His words to abiding in us. When His words abide in us, we can ask what we desire, and it will be done for us.

Biblical prayer is primarily about getting God’s will done in us, not the other way round. Jesus emphasized this in the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” 

Many people think of prayer as a way to get their will sanctioned in heaven, but it’s the opposite is true—it’s about getting God’s will done on earth.

If that's the case, how do you know what God wants done? It’s simple: you look at His Word. Prayer and scripture always go together.

In Acts 4, the small group quoted a Psalm in their prayer. They said, “Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things?” This is a quotation from Psalm 2. They were saying, “Lord, you are the Creator of everything. This is nothing new to You. You already said in Your Word that people would plot against You, and that’s exactly what’s happening.”

By quoting Psalm 2, they acknowledged that God predicted opposition like this but that He is still in control. They looked at their circumstances through the lens of God’s Word.

Instead of focusing on the opposition, they focused on God’s sovereignty.

In verse 27, they applied Psalm 2 to their situation, saying: “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 are saying that everything that has happened is under God’s control, fulfilling His purposes.

When you face spiritual opposition, it’s never personal, it may feel that but remember the opposition is really against the Lord. Jesus said that if the world hates you, remember that it hated Him first. This is good news because it means the opposition isn’t about you—it’s about Him. And because the opposition is against Him, you can call on Him for help.

Now, let’s continue with their prayer. After praising God and quoting scripture, they made their request in verse 29 & 30

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.”

Their request had two parts: first, for boldness to speak God’s word, and second, for God to work through signs and wonders.

They didn’t pray for protection; they prayed for power. They asked for boldness to speak and for God to perform miracles through them.

The term “boldness” here means the freedom to speak openly and without fear. In the original Greek, it simply means having the freedom to speak. You can speak calmly, gently, or even in a whisper and still be bold if you feel free to express the truth.

They didn’t pray for a change in their circumstances or for protection. They prayed for the courage and freedom to continue speaking God’s word. 

This is a powerful example for us. When facing opposition, we should pray for the strength to continue trusting that He is in control and will accomplish His purposes.

They prayed for power. This is what I think is critical: they prayed not that the circumstances would change but that their attitude would. Did you hear that? They prayed not that the situation would change but that God would give them the freedom to speak.

They were saying, Lord, change us to meet this threatening situation. Give us the boldness to speak, and when we speak, You do you work to change the situation, even something miraculous.

By the way, let me make an observation at this point. The people who are most opposed to the gospel are sometimes the most likely to be converted. The hardest to reach are the ones who are apathetic

I heard it said by a marriage counsellor once say that as long as the married couple are still arguing, there’s hope for the marriage. It’s when they get apathetic that there’s little hope for the marriage. Why is that? The explanation is that when they’re angry, they’re still emotional, and when they’re emotional, they’re more likely to change their emotions when confronted with the fact that their emotions can be turned to good use.

In their opposition to the gospel when people are the most adamant against it, they may in fact be the most likely candidates for conversion. 

So, don’t let the fact that they’re voicing threats and opposition stop you or even slow you down. Just remember, the Lord is in control, and what you need to do is ask for boldness in that situation and let God work. 

That’s the point of what is being said here.

They prayed and they then requested of the Lord that He give them boldness. Now, let’s look at the results of all of this 

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.

(Acts 4: 31)

In the Old Testament, when a place is shaken, it was an indication of the presence of God. Several passages indicate this, but one of the clearest is Psalm 68, which says, “The earth shook; the heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God.” Then it says, “Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.” So, in the Old Testament, if a place shook, it meant God was present. That doesn’t mean every time God’s presence is there, the place shakes, but it’s just to say that when it happened, the Lord was on the scene.

Verse 31 is telling us: God was present. Who cares what the opposition is if we know the Lord is involved in this thing? And then it says “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” Their request was that they speak with boldness, and the result is they spoke boldly.

They got what they requested—they got the presence and power of God—and that came after they prayed.

The other thing I’d like you to notice in these verses is that they spoke with boldness. 

I want to wind this up and make one or two little observations in closing in a way that I think are practical and personal for us. 

The point is simple: in this passage, they got the freedom to speak when they prayed and when they prayed they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

A couple of points: the prayer was not individual but corporate. So, if you feel some intimidation or downright fear to speak to somebody about the Lord, may I suggest you follow the pattern of this passage? 

This is not private prayer; it’s group prayer. So, there needs to be prayer, but it should just be personal individual prayer, that is good but we need this type of prayer as well.

The second thing there needs to be is the filling of the Spirit. I don’t have the time to go into a lot of detail about the filling of the Spirit, but I think there’s one point concerning the filling of the Spirit that’s super critical in this context: The filling of the Spirit is connected to the Scripture. It’s hard to separate the two. 

The result of letting the word of Christ to dwell in you richly is the exact same thing as in Ephesians 5, talks about the results of that being worship and the receiving and using of the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So, I simply want to suggest that there is a great connection between being filled with the Word of God and being filled with the Spirit of God. After all, He is the author of the Word. 

With that as a backdrop, read the passage and see that they were praying, but they were so filled with the knowledge of the Word of God that most of their prayer is a citation from the Psalms. They were filled with the Scripture, and that is what the Spirit of God uses to fill us and empower us so that we can speak with boldness.

The point is, if you have any apprehension in a situation where you want the freedom to speak for the Lord, the bottom line is, I have to suggest number one, that you call a prayer meeting or get some friends to pray with you. Group prayer is clearly involved in this situation.

The second thing is that you need to depend upon the Spirit of God. As you are filled with the Word of God, you then need to depend upon the Spirit of God to give you, in that right moments, the freedom and the boldness to speak for the Lord. If we do those couple of things, you will have the freedom to speak in the most difficult of situations because you can in a sense just stand back and watch the Lord work.

Take someone like Paul, who went from persecutor to apostle. Or consider Martin Luther, who started the Reformation and faced great opposition. He aroused the ire of the papacy, and one papal envoy warned him that if he persisted in his course, he would be deserted by all of his supporters. The envoy asked, "If that happens, where will you be then?" Martin Luther looked at the representative and said, "Then I will be where I have always been, in the hands of Almighty God."

The essence is that as you stand were you are, you have the prayers of people behind me, but you also have the word and the Spirit of God with you. That is when you have the freedom to stand up and speak.