Acts: The Church's Beginning
Week 7
Acts 4
Acts 4:31 (ESV) — 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
1. CONFIDENT WITNESSES ARE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Luke 12:11–12 (ESV) — 11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
A. SPIRIT-FILLED WITNESSES ARE CONTROLLED BY GOD’S SPIRIT.
B. SPIRIT-FILLED WITNESSES OBEY GOD RATHER THAN MEN, EVEN UNDER THE THREAT OF PERSECUTION OR DEATH.
“Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard” (4:19).
“Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12).
2. CONFIDENT WITNESSES HAVE SPENT MUCH TIME WITH JESUS AND LEARNED FROM HIM.
3. CONFIDENT WITNESSES TESTIFY OF WHAT THEY KNOW FOR CERTAIN.
A. WE KNOW FOR CERTAIN THAT JESUS IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD.
“Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health” (4:10-11).
B. WE KNOW FOR CERTAIN THAT JESUS FULFILLED MANY OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES.
C. WE KNOW FOR CERTAIN THAT JESUS PERFORMED MANY ATTESTED MIRACLES THROUGH THE APOSTLES.
D. WE KNOW FOR CERTAIN THAT JESUS HAS SAVED US THROUGH FAITH IN HIS NAME, AND THAT HE WILL SAVE ANY THAT WILL CALL UPON HIM.
4. CONFIDENT WITNESSES INSIST ON JESUS AS THE ONLY WAY OF SALVATION.
“By what power, or in what name, have you done this?” (4:7).
“by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead” (4:10).
“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (4:12).
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6).
“There is salvation in no one else …” (Acts 4:12).
“Pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”
