Acts 4:23-31 Speaking
His Word with Boldness
When
push-came-to-shove, their backs-were-against-the-wall, and the-heat-was-on,
what did the apostles and other believers do?
(1) They gathered together as a body of
believers—the church. They did not forsake the assembling of themselves
together but fortified all the more for encouragement, strength, mutual
support, and friendship.
(2) They began to pray corporately.
There was no second-guessing what they should do. There was no debate or
discussion of how to respond. The believers immediately began to pray
together—to cry out to God.
(3) They turned to Scripture for
answers, for understanding, for God’s will.
(4) They asked for God to give them
boldness of speech. They did not hunker-down and hideout. They wanted all the
more to speak the truth of Christ.
(5) They asked for God to work healings,
signs, and wonders.
(***) We know that we can take this as an
example of what to do in the midst of pressure and persecution because God
looked favorably upon their prayers by validating it with the shaking of the
place and by answering them by sending the Holy Spirit afresh to embolden them
to speak the word of God.