Though the early church endured intense persecution, the Lord enabled His first-century followers to proclaim the gospel with boldness and conviction. In this sermon, R.C. Sproul describes how we can live with the same boldness because of the power of the Holy Spirit and the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has defeated sin and death.

And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said:

‘Why did the nations rage,
And the people plot vain things?
The kings of the earth took their stand,
And the rulers were gathered together
Against the Lord and against His Christ.’

“For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.”

And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

He who has ears to hear the Word of God, let them hear. Let us pray.

Father, indeed, our souls are thrilled when we hear accounts such as these of Your visitation upon the early church with the power of the Holy Spirit that changed these fearful people into people of great boldness. We pray that You would do that same work in our souls this day. For we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Virtue of Boldness

I believe it was George Bernard Shaw who invented the idea of the declension of personal adjectives. If you remember your grammar from elementary school, you decline nouns, not personal adjectives. But what Shaw had in mind with the declension of personal adjectives was something like: “I am confident, you are cocky, and he is arrogant.” That is the way we decline personal adjectives.

Another way to do it would be like this: “I am bold, you are brash, and she is foolhardy.” Depending on how we look at things, that is the way we use adjectives to describe people. When we describe ourselves, we tend to choose an adjective that sounds virtuous, but when the same property is manifested in somebody else, we tend to diminish the virtue of it. That is what Shaw had in mind.

In previous weeks in our study of Acts, we’ve repeatedly seen the adjective boldness used in the pages of Scripture to describe Peter, John, and the early church. When the New Testament speaks of the quality of boldness, it describes an attribute of virtue, an attribute that is to mark the life of the church in every generation.

God’s Authority over All

Let us look now to the text. Our section begins, “Being let go”—that is, after their overnight imprisonment and the kangaroo trial in front of the supreme court of Israel where Peter and John were commanded no more to speak in the name of Jesus, to which they responded saying, “Whether it be right to obey God or man, you be the judge,” and made it manifest that they were not going to submit to this rule, and then, out of fear of the people, the Sanhedrin let John and Peter go (Acts 4:13–22). So, beginning in Acts 4:23, we are looking at what happened afterward.

“And being let go, they went to their own companions”—they came back to those in the early church—“and they reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that,” this body of Christian people in the first century “raised their voice to God with one accord and said, ‘Lord, You are God.’”

What could be more obvious than recognizing the Lord as God, and why were they doing it? The people were saying, in effect, “We’ve just been before the highest court, the highest authority of the land, but we are acknowledging You, O God, as the Lord, and it’s to You that we bow in adoration and to whose authority we submit.”

The Nations Rage

The early church confessed on this occasion:

Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said:

“Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot vain things?
The kings of the earth took their stand,
And the rulers were gathered together
Against the Lord and against His Christ.”

Immediately, during their prayer, the people were reminded of the Word of God that came to Israel through the writing of David in the second Psalm. If you are familiar with Psalm 2, it begins with a question: “Why do the nations roar? Why do the heathens rage and the kings of the world take counsel together and set themselves against the Lord and against His Messiah, against the Lord’s Anointed?” Psalm 2 describes a summit meeting of the most powerful rulers in the world who refuse to submit to the dominion and reign of God, who will not have God reign over them. They say, “Let’s cast His bonds asunder; let’s break loose from His reigns.”

Psalm 2 captures the separation of the state from God in antiquity. David predicted that there would be an international conspiracy—not limited to one country or one group—in which the rulers from all over the world would assemble in defiance against the lordship of God Almighty and against His anointed Messiah.

The Lord Laughs

When David describes this scene of the summit meeting of the enemies of God, we are told that the Lord sits in heaven and laughs (Ps. 2:4). He looks at the assembly of all the power and might of the kings of the world as they gather and aim their bombs, arrows, guns, and tanks at the Lord and His Christ. God looks down from heaven and laughs: “What is this?” He is amused at first with the supposed power and strength of the kings of this world. God makes fun of the kings: “The Lord shall hold them in derision.”

But God’s derision lasts only for a moment, for the psalmist tells us that God’s amusement turns to wrath. He warns the kings of the world: “I will strike their knees with the rod of iron. I will take their armies, I will take their weapons, and I will destroy them like a potter’s jar is smashed against the ground.” The latest generation of tanks will be scooped up by God in His hand. He will turn them over and crush them against the ground. He warns them:

Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
And you perish in the way. (Ps. 2:12).

When John and Peter went back to the people of God and told them what happened, they began to praise God: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth.” They remembered, as if to say, “Now we know what David was talking about regarding the rulers of this world taking counsel together.”

The Counsel of the Almighty

Listen to what the people said: “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.” They didn’t say, “This unholy alliance gathered together to do to Jesus whatever they wanted to do.” No, it was all according to the hand of God and the purpose He had determined beforehand.

The early church had no debates about Calvinism and Arminianism. There was no Arminian to be found in the early church. Every Christian believed in the sovereignty of God, and they believed in it absolutely. They never negotiated the sovereignty of God, because Jesus revealed exactly who God is and the power of the Almighty against all the machinations of the people of the world.

It’s as though the early church said: “We’ve seen the power of the Romans, the gentiles, and the Sanhedrin. But it is nothing. Just a few weeks ago, Your Son was delivered into their hands to be executed by Your hand and by Your determinant purpose and counsel from the beginning of the world.”

Isaiah 53 describes the Suffering Servant of Israel, and it says, “It pleased the Lord to bruise Him” (Isa. 53:10). Our Lord Jesus would not have suffered even a scratch simply by the conspiracy of human enemies against Him were it not for the determinant counsel of the Father, who ordained from all eternity that the Son should suffer at the hands of wicked men for your sake and for my sake.

The early Christians understood that in the drama of redemption, despite all the antagonistic actions of those in this world, God was still sovereign. God was still in control of all that happened, and they said: “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word.”

From Cowardice to Boldness

Luke continues, “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.”

Boldness, boldness, boldness. Can you see that the character of the first-century Christian church was marked repeatedly with unparalleled boldness? Yet, just a matter of weeks before this moment, when the lanterns were appearing in the garden of Gethsemane as the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, His disciples fled in panic. At Calvary when Christ was being executed, yes there was John, yes there was Mary, but where were the rest of them? Peter was huddling in the corner cursing, denying that he had ever met Jesus. There was very little boldness in that moment.

The book of Revelation, when it speaks of the final judgment of God, about those whom He will send into the lake of fire, the murderers, the adulterers, and so on, what is the first group that goes into the lake of fire? The cowards. If anything marks the church of the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is cowardliness. If anything describes the difference between us and the first-century church, it is our lack of boldness.

Yet we see this sudden transformation in the text. Just a few days before, the disciples were in the upper room hiding, cowering, terrified, and locking the doors for fear of the Jews. Now, they are standing up against the highest authority in the land fearlessly. What happened? Two things: the resurrection and Pentecost.

The resurrection galvanized the faith of the early church. When they saw the risen Christ, when they saw His victory over death and His enemies, when He burst alive out of the tomb, a faith was born in the breasts of the Apostles and disciples that the world could not extinguish. Adding to the power of that faith was the power of Pentecost, in which God the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they began to proclaim the Word of God fearlessly into the whole world.

Proclaim the Gospel Boldly

I remember an experience I had as a sophomore in college. I had only been a Christian a year, and it was announced that Billy Graham would be a guest on The Tonight Show, starring Jack Paar.

All the Christians gathered on our campus went to the one television set in the dorm where we could watch the late-night program with Jack Paar. Billy Graham came onto the program, and Jack Parr in his inimitable fashion, wanted to speak frivolously with Billy and be the comedian. He said: “Billy, I guess you’re coming here tonight to talk to me and try to save my soul. I guess you’re trying to straighten my life out. You’re probably going to try to get me to repent.”

Billy smiled and said: “Well Jack, have you thought about repenting? Because you know you need to, and yes, I am concerned about your soul because without Jesus, Jack, you’re going to perish.” I was sitting there as a college kid listening to this, and I said, “I can’t believe what I’m hearing.” Billy Graham was not nasty. He was not mean. He was not insensitive, but I will tell you what he was, folks: He was bold before the whole nation. He was not going to be manipulated into being silent about the truth of Christ.

Where is that boldness among us? Yes, there is a difference between boldness and being brash, foolhardy, obnoxious, and offensive. That is not what I am talking about. I am talking about being done with cowardliness and living the proclamation of the gospel with the boldness that characterizes a Christian who is persuaded of the resurrection of Christ, the defeat of death.

May we experience the same change in us that was in these men. After they celebrated the Last Supper with Jesus, they appeared faithless because of their fear. But the Christ who fed them that night was raised from the dead, and He raised them from their fears and turned them into valorous saints.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.